7The bike was purchased based on reviews in bike magazines, looks, the fact that is Canadian, my desire to go full suspension, and the fact that I had the money to spare.

The bike looks great. It immediately became the "benchmark" among the group I ride with. We bike in the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico, which means a lot of steep drop-offs, tricky downhill sections, and lots of rocks. The bike performs great under all these conditions. The only problem is that there is also a lot of uphill riding, and the bike is just too heavy. I knew about the weight when I bought the bike, but the realities of riding something that heavy don't really hit home until you are out there in the heat grinding uphill. Unless you have access to a chairlift, you have to ride uphill, and in that case you are doing downhill biking rather than a combination (freeriding?!).

The large diameter front axle makes just about every type of car carrier obsolete for this bike, thus it is very difficult to transport around. This is a lot bigger problem than one would think.

The grips keep spinning and coming off, a comment noted in a bike magazine review. this is very annoying. I finally hit upon a true Canadian solution - I used maple syrup to stick them on. This works for about a month and then must be repeated. The grip shifters supplied take up too much space on the grips, leading to unwanted gear changes at inopportune moments.

All the complaining aside, the bike rules on the straight/downhill sections where we ride. It makes you fearless because of the confidence it inspires. Despite brutal abuse, it has held up great over time. No problems at all to report, other than an annoying squeak from the front axle that just will not go away.

The bike still looks great, but I have gone back to riding my Devinci most of the time because I just can't keep up on the RM6.




Recommended: No