Specialized Rockhopper is a popular brand name that has strong presence in mountain bike market for more than two decades. It is known for its solid frame design and quality of ride. Though this market is filled with full suspension bikes, hardtail bikes are still liked by most of the beginners and intermediate riders who want to step into to full suspension bike after gaining good riding skills in hardtail.
Specialized Rockhopper SL is a new hardtail mountain bike that has fresh facelift and made with many changes that sure to impress the riders. It is well known that specialized engineer their bikes with perfect balance between quality and the look of the bike. It is great foundation to start with one of the best designed Rockhopper XC bike frame for new comers. This SL 2010 version is the current line of Rockhopper bike and it is a basic hardtail model, which is reasonably light and affordable.
Specialized Rockhopper SL 2010 Mountain Bike - Red
Popular Frame Design
This Specialized bike is made with M4 fully manipulated alloy frame with 100mm of travel. Its unique frame design flawlessly defines the backbone strength by intelligently built downtube that originate from headset with clean shape. It is not a straight downtube rather the upper end is well build along with rectangular shape cross section and it neatly bends to form straight downtube that come down towards bottom brocket shell. The toptube also well accompanies the full frame structure that has slightly curvy design.
Riding performance
This hardtail bike is built to work harder when it encounters bumpy ride and it prepares well to handle the balance. It is slightly heavier then recreational XC bike and its weight is a great advantage, which gives good pedalling response with acceleration agility on trail. Its all depends on the rider’s ability to handle the bike and this Rockhopper SL would obey your rules based on how you ride.
This cross country is a faster bike and the 100mm of travel can be fully utilized when you put the weight forward while driving and let the rear end follows without impeding the forward progress. The light weight alloy frame would help you to control the speed on little rougher trail and it lets you to easily navigate through the difficult path. All this is possible because this XC mountain bike has wide bars, fitted with suitable travel fork and nicely arranged frame design.
Specialized Rockhopper SL Hardtail Bike - Black
Valuable Equipments
This Rockhopper SL model comes with Dart 3 front fork and hydraulic disc brakes. The fork is made with coil shock, which works best for specific weight of the rider. This specialized mountain bike has detailed frame design along with intelligently built chainstays and seatstays, which gives room to try bolder tyres with enough mud clearance. It has good stopping power with hydraulic disc brakes and this cross country bike brings the rear wheel to halt during eccentric driving condition. It is featured with 9 speed drivetrain.
Rockshox Dart 3 is a basic and entry level fork that does its job well and suitable for cross country style ride. Rockhopper is also available with Air shocks but in the higher end model, which is expensive. If you can stretch your budget then you can also try Tora SLite fork with Avid hydraulic disc, which is available in the next model Rockhopper SL Comp that cost you extra £100. The shifter has average performance but not bad for what you pay. This mountain bike has achieved good reputation in ‘dirty dozen test’ and gives excellent riding experience.
Hardtail bike for Beginners and Intermediates
This XC bike would be a great experience for those who like to start their MTB sports as a beginner. It would definitely help them to improve their riding condition and act as a better platform for transforming from hardtail to full suspension mountain bike later in their riding experience. This Specialized Rockhopper SL bike has average component setup and performs at its best level, which gives true value for what you pay.
For beginners the bike would give good ride and no need for any immediate upgrades but for intermediates, this bike need to have little upgrades. If you have several years of hardtail bike riding experience and if you are in the edge of trying full suspension bike then this bike is not for you. You must try Specialized Stumpjumper FSR full suspension mountain bike.
Bike upgrades
This Specialized bike frame is light and strong enough for any future upgrades and it is easy to do and cost less. The fully butted alloy frame has good agility and performance, which satisfies all the need for recreational XC riders. For Intermediate riders, you must put bolder tyres and tubes along with Crankbros clip pedals in order to manage for hard trail ride. You must mainly consider fork, crankset, Rims, brakes and shifters for future upgrades in this Rockhopper SL basic model. After upgrades the bike would push you for better ride. Do not try this bike too hard for bumpy trail then you will end up replacing almost every component in it. This mountain bike is not meant for serious riders.
Rockhopper variants
Specialized Rockhopper hardtail bike is available in four variants such as SL, SL Comp, SL Expert and SL Pro. The most important difference among the four variants is front fork, hydraulic disc brake and rim. All the variants uses same M4 fully manipulated alloy frame. The basic Rockhopper SL bike starts with £700.
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