Slacker Upgrades

We've upgraded the Slacker full builds. Rockshox and SRAM have rolled out some incredible new kit for 2025 and it's now available on Slackers.

Our approach has always been to build bikes the way we would ride them, which means no corner-cutting on the parts - even where nobody would notice. Which seems like common sense to me, but is surprisingly rare in an industry of tight margins and even tighter competition. But it's equally important for us to be as up-to-date as possible; whenever there's an opportunity to make a bike better, we want to pass that on your our customers. And that's exactly what we've done with the Slacker full builds.

SRAM Maven DH Brakes

We make no secret of the fact that we like SRAM's Code brake, and that's what we've fitted to both the Edit and the Slacker. Our view is that you can never be over-braked, so it made sense to run SRAM's DH brake even on our trail bikes. That seems to be something SRAM also understand, which is where the new Maven brake comes in. It's what they call an 'extreme' brake, which you can probably tell just by looking at it. Have you ever seen a more beefy caliper on a mountain bike? 

Craig ran a set of Mavens on his bike for Redbull Hardline this year, and if they can handle that they can handle anything the rest of us can throw at them.

Maven's produce around 50% more power than the Code, which means they're by far the most powerful brakes SRAM have ever produced. But what's arguably more important is that they require less input force - less effort from you - which makes all that power more accessible. And that means less arm-pump, which means more control... and more speed.

The levers are instantly recognisable, but they're also completely new. The lever pistons are much bigger to keep that vital lever-to-caliper ratio right. And SwingLink means that they deliver more power as you get deeper into the lever stroke. From an aesthetic point of view, the stealth hose routing is also improved, with the hose exiting parallel to the bars which makes for a super clean setup.

We're fitting Mavens to all new Slacker builds from now on. The Slacker Luxe gets Maven Bronze, the Slacker Deluxe and Slacker Park get Maven Silver, and the Slacker Works gets Maven Ultimate. And remember, the Deluxe, Park and Works also get the top-of-the-line HS2 rotors.

The best bit is that we've held the prices, so these upgrades won't cost you a penny more. Nice.

Rockshox Vivid Coil Shocks

The new Vivid Coil shock looks a lot like it's predecessor, the Super Deluxe Coil. But there's more going on here than meets the eye. The main change is the new TouchDown damping system, which is position sensitive. What that means is that the damper can be more forgiving at the start of the stroke but still offer plenty of mid-stroke support.

The Vivid Coil also offers the new adjustable Hydraulic Bottom-out feature which we've found makes a huge difference to the end-stroke. It's optional but we spec it because it make a huge difference. You can adjust the compression damping in the last 20% of the stroke with five clicks of adjustment to get the bottom-out tuned perfectly.

All the Rockshox equipped Slackers have been upgraded to the 2025 Vivid Coil Ultimate. So you can get one of these on a Slacker Luxe, a Slacker Deluxe or a Slacker Park (the Slacker Works is, of course, running Öhlins).

As with the Maven brake upgrade, we've held the prices so you can now get an even better bike, but you wont' have to pay a penny more. These bikes were already incredibly good value, but now they're even better. And of course we have flexible payment options from V12 Retail Finance.