Closer look at the Rose Beef Cake DH

A while back we had a brief look at Rose Bikes and introduced you to their range for 2010. This time we checkout their downhill bike, the Beefcake. For those who have not heard of Rose, they are a German brand who have a massive presence in their homeland where they sell thousands of parts, clothing and other cycling bits through their mail order/web business and Biketown store as well as designing their own mountain bikes and Red Bull branded road and cross-country models.

When I heard we were getting the opportunity to try out their downhill bike aptly named "Beefcake", we were concerned that it was going to just be another heavy and sluggish downhill bike, but we were very wrong!

The first thing to note is that the Beefcake is a fun bike to ride. Our riders quickly felt very comfortable on the bike chucking it down the local downhill runs, where the bike handled everything we threw at it.

Despite its hefty appearance the Rose Beef Cake is a very agile DH bike that pedals well and coped happily with the tight and twisty sections. With a very good spec, the Beef Cake offers great value for your money and is well worth a closer look.

Specification Frame: Beef Cake DH Aluminium Rear Shock: Fox RC2 Coil (200 mm) Fork: Fox 40 RC2 200 mm, 20mm thru axle Headset: FSA Orbit Z 1.5 R Wheel set: Mavic Deetraks, thru axle 20 mm front and SRAM Rear Maxle 12x150 rear Tyres: Schwalbe Muddy Mary Downhill 2.5 Sprocket: Shimano XTR Crankset: Truvativ Holzfeller Open Core Technology 1.1 Rear Derailleur: Shimano Saint Shifter: Shimano Saint Brakes: Formula The One FR 203/203 Seat post: Syncros FR Saddle: Selle Italia SLR T1 Handlebar: Syncros FR 690 mm 20 mm rise, 31.8 mm Stem: Syncros FR Colours: Pearl Orange/ Pearl White

Price: - £3,059 www.rosebikes.co.uk