The slackest thing in the category, from the brand that rose from the (not qute) dead.
The Element is what happens when a North Shore company builds an XC bike: it comes out the slackest thing in the category. Set the geometry chip all the way over and you're looking at a 65.0 degree head angle on a bike with 120mm of travel that weighs less than 27 pounds. Reviewers keep describing it from opposite directions, less a beefed-up XC rig than a trail bike that shrank in the wash. Either way, it climbs like the race bike it descended from and descends like the place it was designed.
Rocky Mountain has been building bikes in and around Vancouver since 1981, and Alison Sydor won Canada's first XC World Cup on one in 1992. Then the part you might have heard about: the parent company filed for creditor protection in December 2024, roughly 70 million Canadian dollars in debt, and for a few months the oldest name in Canadian mountain biking looked finished. Four Canadian investors bought it in May 2025 under the name Chaos Sports, kept the brand, restored R&D in North Vancouver, and honored existing warranties. A year on, Rocky is shipping a full catalog and expanding back into Europe. The bike industry has generated a lot of obituaries lately. This one got retracted.
Most geometry flip chips are a party trick with two settings. The Element's RIDE-4 chip has four positions, and one Allen key changes the head angle (65.0 to 65.8 degrees), the seat angle, the bottom bracket height, and the suspension progression at the same time. It's the rare adjustable-geometry system that adjusts something you'd actually notice.The frame is where the 2024 refresh happened. Rocky swapped the rear pivot bearings for flexing seatstays (they call the layout SMOOTHLINK SL) and cut about 350 grams, while the geometry carried over from the 2021 redesign that made the Element a downcountry poster child in the first place: 120mm rear, 130mm fork, numbers that were considered radical for an XC bike at the time. Claimed weight is 26.9 pounds for the Carbon 70 in size L, mid-pack for the category; a comparable, for example, Epic 8 Evo build weighs 26.7. Four builds, all carbon this generation, from the Marzocchi-and-Deore Carbon 30 at $4,699 to the XTR Di2 Carbon 90 at $10,599, with a $3,199 frameset. The model name, for what it's worth, goes back to 1996, when an Element was a NORBA race rig with 75mm of rear travel and a 60mm Judy up front.Reviews of this generation agree with each other to a suspicious degree. Pinkbike's Henry Quinney found it a genuinely good climber with more usable suspension support than the old bike. NSMB's Cooper Quinn called it a riot that rides above its class. Singletracks' Sam James thought the descending was the whole show and noticed the seated position reads more trail bike than XC. Enduro Mountainbike Magazine concluded it comes alive with experienced riders on flowing trails. And The Radavist's Morgan Taylor came away calling it far more capable than any of its XC ancestors while still efficient pointed uphill.
Pinkbike once called the previous Element the perfect bike for BC Bike Race, and that's still the cleanest way to place it: a big-day fitness bike with North Shore manners. The Radavist's verdict on that same earlier generation was that it was "too good for its own good." The new one is lighter. Make of that what you will.
The Element climbs very well, and you can really plumb along smoother trails. This newer model feels a shade more progressive with more compression damping available from the shock.
Read full review at Pinkbike →It's a bike that punches well above its weight class, and it's a riot.
Read full review at NSMB →The Element's party trick is the way it descends. It's sharp and lively thanks to a low frame weight and short travel, yet stable thanks to the slackish geometry.
Read full review at Singletracks →The Element feels more like a downsized trail bike than beefed-up XC rig.
Read full review at Enduro Mountainbike Magazine →Way more capable than any of its XC-bred predecessors, but still very efficient uphill. It was like I was slicing and dicing with an old friend.
Read full review at The Radavist →
