Rossignol Heretic Long Term review

Ideally, I need months of saddle time to really test a bike and find its strengths, weaknesses, and in the process, mine too. While I don’t always get to hold on to a bike for that long, the fine people at Rossignol have let me put their long-travel bike through the wringer locally. The Heretic has experienced the dust, the wet, the rough and the smooth. It has come out the other end mostly intact. It has behaved predictably and injected a dose of confidence into my veins. The bottom line is that folks at Rossignol and, in parallel, Kairn Design Studio have created a fine machine worthy of consideration.

The Heretic I rode is the GX T-Type build, which sits at the top of the lineup with its distinct purple frame. Rossignol colour-coded the builds, so if you wanted a certain colour, you are also committing to a spec list with it. The paint quality is excellent with no visible damage to the high-wear areas of the frame during the test period. Combined with a heavy-duty aluminum frame, the Heretic is designed to last years on end under heavy abuse. This is a smart move as the French company stocks many European bike parks with rental fleets made up of Heretics and DH Projects. The other two build options with the Heretic are a 5800CAD Shimano SLX build and a 4300CAD Shimano Deore build. The value proposition of the SLX build is compelling, but the GX T-Type does offer some performance upgrades that might be important to some people. My initial impressions of the Heretic on foreign soil were positive. On home turf, not much has changed, but some secrets have been revealed that weren’t evident initially.

Size-wise, the Medium Heretic felt sensible for my 5’8″ figure. The 458.9mm reach and 634mm stack allow for an “in the bike” feel rather than sitting perched on top. The sensation can often be hard to describe to people, but once you take the 442mm chainstay Heretic around a corner, you realize, this thing is made to hurt berms. The low BB figures, combined with a healthy stack, allow the Heretic to be driven from the pedals. I have burped the rear tire more than I’d like on well-supported corners. Therefore, the Heretic is filed under “best cornering twenty-niner” in my little black book. While I didn’t try a mixed wheel setup on the Heretic, I feel like it may ignite a “too much of a good thing” fire as the rider’s weight would shift even further back on the chassis. This could have a negative effect on the handling on steeper terrain. Speculative on my end, but this is my general experience with tall-stack, mixed wheel bikes.

On the scale, the all-aluminum build sits on the heavier side of what I prefer. With the stock EXO+ Maxxis tires, the 39.5lb bike meant I either needed to shape up or mostly ride this beast on shuttle assisted days. Not long after the arrival of the bike, I also got to put the Fox Podium fork on it. The Podium complemented the Heretic’s nature and boosted its already capable suspension. Now, a 41lb bike is not my definition of a quick lap bike, so the bike quickly became a shuttle-only rig. With Whistler Bike Park on tap, Cypress trails in incredible shape, and thanks to the trail faries on Seymour, the Heretic got plenty of kilometres of abuse.

The Heretic, with its previous generation Float X2, prefers 30% sag. This for me is 175-180psi depending on my kit. I assume the shock will be a running change as the company sells out of builds with the previous generation. On the Fox 38, 88-90psi is my go-to with the compression in the opener side of things (This is on the Grip X2, on the old Grip 2, I like the compression more towards closed). Tires changed to Super Soft Continental Kryptotal Rears, back and front, in DH and Enduro casings respectively. Pressures were set to 24-25psi on the rear and 19-20psi on the front. There is plenty of antisquat built into the Heretic. This makes this 165mm rear wheel travel bruiser feel like it sits on the sportier side of plush. There is feedback through the pedals with a little kickback. This feedback communicates the trail texture back to you without robbing you of speed or disturbing the chassis.

The fairly linear leverage ratio of 2.9 to 2.2 also means it is predictable in support throughout the stroke. No surprises, anywhere. On the climbs, the heavy-set Heretic moves forward in every pedal stroke. There is no feeling of slogging up a climb if the pilot has the energy to turn the 170mm GX cranks and the 32t sprocket. Technical climbs are also welcomed, but the Heretic is most happy on the smoother roads. I never reached for the climb switch on the Fox shock.

Downhill Performance

On the downhills, the bike comes alive with plenty of traction on tap. It responds well to pumping on flowier trails and even trails like Pseudo Pseuga are not “boring” if you put enough effort in. It is an easy bike to adapt to any trails on the menu. If your riding is mostly blues and some blacks, run 28% sag and faster tires all day long. I would love to see a bike with similar kinematics but less suspension travel and carbon parts from Rossignol.

If you ride blacks and double blacks regularly, the 30-32% sag is where you should find yourself in. Let the bike sink in and add a little less rebound damping for a livelier feel. I think a coil shock would be right at home for that crowd. At bike park speeds, the Rossignol felt stable. Attack and Flow modes are a little confusing by terminology, but Attack is low, long and slack, whereas Flow is less low, shorter and less slack. They don’t feel massively different on the trail. Maybe more noticeable if you have to pedal through technical stuff often.

The Heretic jumps really well if you couldn’t tell by the photos in this article. It rarely behaves unnaturally on the lips of jumps. Push into the take off, and you are rewarded with an upward trajectory. Dirt Merchant and A-line laps are its jam. I did find the seatpost length a little problematic in those situations. When I slammed the seatpost down in the park, the seat would buzz the rear tire on heavy compressions. The solution is either moving the seat forward on the rails or being content with the 150mm dropper. Saddle angle adjusting devices may be a good option for the Heretic, although I haven’t tried one. I am keen, however.

Component Report

While, as a package, the Heretic is well put together, I had some issues throughout the testing period. After the first few rides, I had couple of the pivots work themselves loose. The main pivot especially was coming loose after every other ride. Removing it, cleaning the old loctite and applying some fresh blue helped with this issue. On one occasion, the GX crank worked itself loose; I’ve never ever seen one loosen before. After tightening, it never loosened up again. The fact that the bearings feel as fresh as they do after hundreds of miles of park laps is a good track record.

The Maven Bronze brakes continue to have some issues to this day. The rear one especially, is allergic to bleeding efforts. It is hard to get good fluid flow through the master. On one particular Cypress Mountain shuttle day, I lost my rear brakes completely. A terrifying outcome when the trails are that fast. I retired to shuttle driver duty for the rest of the day. After a bleed effort or two, they are feeling better, but by far the worst in my fleet of bikes. The Maven Ultimates on the Salsa Notch are the best out of all of them.

The DT SWISS XM1900 wheel is as blue-collar as it gets and has been resilient to damage, save for one nasty dent. Knipex pliers came to the rescue for that one, but the hop is there forever. Sorry Rossi. The 370 hub with the low engagement is anything but exciting on the trail. Part of the reason I chose smoother road climbing on the Heretic. It is feeling “lazy” and lately has been sticking. It will need a service soon. I also wish the spokes were j-bend rather than straight pull. A set of carbon wheels would liven up the Heretic immensely.

The clever tool hiding in the frame protector near the bottom bracket is better in idea than reality. Right in the line of fire for mud and grit, the tool is rusty and near impossible to get out of its hole on the trail. If you are a dry climate cyclist, perhaps this is a non-issue. For me, it is just dead weight.

Overall, the Purple Rossignol Heretic has been a head turner and a fantastic company for the past few months. It hasn’t felt out of it’s element and made easy work of some of the gnarlier double blacks on the North Shore and Whistler. It loves to jump and rip tires off on corners. While the 8000CAD version may be a little less value-oriented, the SLX build is right on the money for a dream build. All the bones are there for carbon wheels, bigger rotors and sticky tires. A bike like this doesn’t need wireless shifting in my opinion. The T-Type experience is fantastic when paired with an eMTB or an eager climbing bike. The Heretic just wants to session jumps and smash corners all day long. It wants you to wear baggy jeans and chest protectors over your white t-shirt.

If you are Canadian, it ships from Quebec, saving you a ton on duties. If you are in the States, SLC, Utah is where Rossignol parties. Europeans will have it the easiest, I reckon, as long as they can stop picturing the brand as a rental shop classic. There is nothing wrong with rental bikes being absolute weapons. If it was my money and I was looking to buy a metal bike, Rossignol Heretic in any of the colours would be on top my list.

Rossignol Heretic – 8000CAD / 6200USD