The Rose "Pikes Peak is clearly aimed at enduro racing. From the suspension and equipment to the Progeo system for adjusting the geometry - see the Ride report www.ride.ch/site/index.php/10213-rose-bringt-neues-trailbike.

With its slack steering angle and long wheelbase, the geometry is designed from the ground up to be downhill-oriented, even in the steep setting. You can feel this from the very first meter. The Pikes Peak is stable even at high speeds. In the slack geometry setting with a 65.5 degree head angle and the even slacker bottom bracket, the smoothness increases even more. The Pikes Peak masters straight-ahead, wide and open as well as hanging bends excellently. Even rooted terrain or rock gardens can be bludgeoned through almost effortlessly with this bike.

Even over root carpets, the Pikes Peak remains smooth-running.

However, the smooth ride and long wheelbase only turn out to be an advantage to a limited extent. As the bends get tighter - even in the bike park - the bike feels a little sluggish and requires a powerful riding style. The sluggishness increases with speed. The long wheelbase of around 1,200 millimeters is responsible for this. In our opinion, the Pikes Peak works best when the Progeo system is ridden in a steeper setting. The agility is still there and offers sufficient smoothness for general use. Only when it really comes to speed are you better off with the flatter setting.

A little more physical effort is required in such curves

We only want to comment cautiously on the suspension, as the suspension strut was not yet the correct model at the time of the first test drive. A version of the Monarch Plus shock from Rock Shox adapted to the kinematics of the rear triangle should work on the production model of the Pikes Peak. Despite the suboptimal damping platform on the prototype, it already rides pretty well. The suspension already responds relatively finely, but still has fluctuations in the spring characteristic. These should be eliminated with the new suspension strut.

Sounds good even without a customized suspension strut: how good do you think the
the standard platform be?

Uphill, the frame of the Pikes Peak impresses with sufficient stiffness in the bottom bracket area. However, it should be emphasized that the final version will look different from the prototype in terms of the lower shock mount. The geometry of the bike is also quite pleasant to ride. During the short ride, we avoided longer climbs and concentrated on the descents.
The new cable clamps also leave a positive impression. In contrast to other models that will be retrofitted with these in the future, the Pikes Peak doesn't have a rattling gear cable or cable in the down tube.

The new cable clamps prevent the shift cable and brake cable from
rattling around in the down tube

Conclusion: Rose's "Pikes Peak" is an interesting bike and should be of particular interest to race-oriented mountain bikers. It impresses with its balanced geometry, which is not adjustable while riding, but can still be easily adjusted. We are definitely looking forward to the final version of this enduro bike, once the right shock has been fitted and the fluctuations in the suspension characteristic have been eliminated.

Chic even at the prototype stage: We're excited about the production model

www.rosebikes.de