# 2018 Rocky Mountain Vertex 24 First Impressions



## retswen (May 13, 2014)

I bought a 2018 Rocky Mountain Vertex 24 for my niece and we have had two bike path rides on it so far. We are just learning braking fundamentals right now so I just set it in a middle gear so she doesn't have to worry about that. She is 8 years old and 48 inches tall, and doesn't have an issue starting from a stop and handling the bike in motion. The only struggle at her height is putting a foot down after stopping. I also have the seat completely slammed, so if her legs were any shorter, it wouldn't work. The bike comes with a trail worthy spec right out of the box.

Stock weight with stock pedals - 26.41 lbs
The stock Schwalbe Black Jacks - 3.22 lbs for the pair

I swapped in some Rocket Rons - 2.03 lbs for the pair (~$30 from bikediscount.de)
Installed Wellgo KC008 pedals
Cut off the stock slide on grips and replaced them with XLC GR-S06GS grips from REI (I hate slide on grips)
Pulled off the dork disc and reflectors
Current weight - 24.67 lbs

With the brakes setup like this, she can do 1 finger braking, because good habits start young:









Overall, I am very satisfied so far. We will hit some trails in the near future and see how it handles.


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## Rattles (Jun 4, 2014)

I'm really curious about the 20" version of this bike for my about to turn six-year-old. How's the fork? Do it compress under her weight and move smoothly? 

What width Rocket-Rons did you go for? Are they wider than the 1.9s that come with the bike?

My local Rocky Mountain dealer doesn't carry this bike so I'd have to order it and I'm trying to get as much info as possible before I pull the trigger.


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## Sparkman999 (Dec 19, 2017)

As an FYI, the fork on the Vertex 20 is a different model than the one on the Vertex 24. Both are air shocks, though.


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## slapheadmofo (Jun 9, 2006)

Consider rolling the brake levers down some; her wrists will thank you.


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## retswen (May 13, 2014)

The fork is not a boat anchor, but I was hoping for at least some sort of rebound adjustment. The only adjustments are air pressure and a lockout that appears to have a few clicks. My guess is that it is a low speed compression adjustment/lock out. It does compress under pressure and we could see that it was moving during a fire road ride due to the dust rings left at different heights.

I personally would not drop this much money on the 20 inch version, unless your kid was the next Jackson Goldstone. They grow out of 20 inch bikes too fast for it to be worth it. I can see my niece riding the 24 until her mid teens.

I didn't realize the brake levers were that high. I will need to have her sit and get in the attack position next time and adjust accordingly. I am very happy with the build quality and component spec so far. Even the heavy stock tires will be kept and used for lift assisted days in the future.


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## mpstenson (Aug 4, 2017)

My seven year old has the same bike and I must say the fork works awesome and the geo on this bike is dialed. You can check out our first impressions here https://everydaymtb.com/rocky-mountain-vertex-24-first-impressions-review/. We've swapped grips, set up tubeless with the stock Kenda tires and added a 27.2 externally routed dropper post.


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