Rocky Mountain Fusion 10 Alloy (2023)

The Rocky Mountain Fusion 10 is one of the more modern mountain bikes in our range.

It's off-road and on-road handling is what sets it apart. On top of that it's a very competitive build kit for the price from the premium Canadian mountain bike brand.

What is the Rocky Mountain Fusion for?

To understand the Fusion, you've got to understand the brand.

Rocky Mountain is a mountain bike specialist brand based in Canada. They are not designing a mountain bike for the sake of it. They are designing it with a purpose.

They've designed the Fusion as a modern mountain bike that delivers calm handling and utmost stability on the trails.

As such, the Fusion is ideal for those who want the option of riding mountain bike trails.

This may not be something you do every weekend, but you still want a mountain bike that's capable of it. The Fusion will deliver added control and safety on unstable trails.

The Fusion Geometry

Geometry means the angle and lengths of a bike's frame.

These angles and lengths are important because they determine how well a bike handles.

Poorly designed angles means poor handling.

The front of the Fusion 10 has a slacker (less vertical) steering angle. It has the effect of pushing the front wheel further forwards.

For riding on unstable surfaces this is crucial to controlling the bike and safety. 

For those interested, this angle is 66.5-degrees.

As a comparison, some mountain bikes still use a 69 to 70-degree steering angle. For context, every 0.5-degree change makes a huge difference.

To offset some of the front end's stability, Rocky has reduced the length of the back end (called the chain stay) to 445mm. 

This makes the bike easier to change directions, lift the front wheel and jump.

Next, the Fusion 10 is lower to the ground compared to most other mountain bikes in this range.

This makes cornering easier on the Fusion because it has a lower centre-of-gravity. 

The Fusion 10 Features

Suntour's XCM suspension is a coil spring fork that smoothly absorbs small bumps.

It's not going to be quite up to absorbing huge, repeated impacts on advanced mountain bike trails but will do perfectly fine on easy, beginner trails.

microSHIFT is a strong competitor to Shimano's mid-range offerings. 

Components from their Advent family are used on the Fusion 10. It's a 9-speed system which means the quality of parts sit at the upper end of recreational.

Advent parts are also robust. They are built for off-road use and as such designed to take on constant bumps and severe conditions.

Additionally, there's a stabiliser built into the rear derailleur. This stops the chain from bouncing and coming off. It also quietens the chain as the bike rolls over bumps.

The Fusion uses better-than-average hydraulic disc brakes that are typically available in this price range.They deliver more stopping power and better control.