I felt comfy shortly on the Rallon because of the self-chosen excessive-rise bar, lengthy dropper submit and 40mm stem. The shock wanted some fettling to unlock the perfect efficiency and enhance suppleness, but it surely was by no means the bump-swallowing “mini DH bike” that the 167mm journey would recommend. I rode it again-to-again with the Scott Ransom, which has comparable suspension and geometry numbers, and the Scott felt a bit of extra comfy on tough terrain and massive hits.
I measured the useable journey after this take a look at and found I used to be struggling to get greater than 159 mm of squish out of the Rallon (the Scott over-delivered at 172 mm measured in the identical method), The helped clarify the distinction in plushness between the bikes. It’s not that the Rallon is harsh, but it surely’s not a plow. The X2 has a considerable backside-out bumper, which on this case in all probability restricts the useable journey and makes the suspension much less good at absorbing the massive hits than you may count on from the quoted journey. The mixture of a progressive linkage, air spring and backside-out bumper which impacts a big fraction of the top-stroke add as much as make the Rallon much less good at erasing bumps than some bikes on this journey bracket.
Don’t get me fallacious: the small-bump sensitivity is nice, (actually good if you happen to optimise the shock setup for it) it simply looks like a 160 mm journey bike relatively than 167 mm, as a result of that is successfully what it’s. The flip facet is that there is not any trace of harshness if you get to the top of the (usable) journey on a heavy touchdown (I’ve a 2-meter drop with a flat-ish touchdown that I take advantage of to check this), and there is loads of assist deep within the stroke when pushing right into a berm or compression. Pump or pedal out of a nook and the assist is there to get you going shortly.
I attempted each excessive and low settings, however I did not have a powerful desire on the descents. Even on tight twisty steeps, the place I often want decrease bikes, I did not discover a lot profit to the low setting, and within the greater setting the suspension felt extra balanced via flatter sections and berms. The excessive setting is noticeably higher for climbing too, so that is what I used most. But even then, the BB is low and the pinnacle angle is slack, so it’s extremely secure and surefooted on steep and techy trails. The low mode is there if you’d like it, however the excessive setting presents an excellent stability for climbing and descending you could set and overlook.
On flatter sections and stream trails the Rallon presents good assist and balanced dealing with, making it straightforward to hold velocity. It responds properly to pedal inputs too, making it as rewarding on sooner, much less demanding trails as it’s on steep and gnarly ones. If a Rallon was your solely bike you would not want for a path bike to go together with it.
