Just dusted off this beauty after three years of sitting in the corner of the apartment, never having been ridden. I thought I would put it aside and upgrade the XT componentry when I had the money. Well it's been 3 years now and the money has been spent on other things...During the whole Schwinn-GT fiasco and Supergo's forsight to buy almost everything they had left, I also tried to capitalize on the disaster. I bought 2 frame sets and 2 factory assembled. Of the two frames, one is a Fastback Ltd., and the other a Homegrown Factory. The 2 factory assembled bikes are a Gold Homegrown Ltd. and a Rocket 88 SL.
My logic for not riding the Rocket right away was that I never owned a Full Suspension bike before, so there was no rush to ride it (although I have been dying to). I had a 1999 Bass Boat Blue Homegrown Ltd. all built up and broken in and the new 2001 Gold Homegrown Ltd. race ready, which I bought with the other bikes. So sat the Rocket neglected!
Well now the Gold homegrown Ltd. needs half of a new drive train so I decided, hell the Rocket is brand new. Why not dust off the cob webs get it dialed in and ride it until I can do something with the Hard Tail. After all it should be ready to ride. It's been sitting for 3 years...
Well after throwing a couple of cable sets on it and checking the air in the shocks and all the usual torque adjustments, I had it on the trail for the first time. Now mind you, I only ever rode one FS bike before. I demo'd a Gary Fisher Joshua or maybe it was a Sugar? I forget...it was back in '97 out in Utah, where I learned how to ride on my Moab 2 Cro-moly. (Up North in the Wasatch, not down South in the Desert.) So I don't know jack about how a full suspensions is supposed to feel. I had my shock pump with me on the trail for adjustments, and made them when I got a feel for it. All I can say is that if that is how a FS bike is supposed to feel than it is dialed. It rode SWEET both climbing and downhill, ESPECIALLY DOWNHILL!!!
I guess the only thing I have left to do is dial in the rear shock to how I like it. I did notice that one of the Shock Eye Bolts is just under snug lose, and needs to be tightened. The one closest to the BB.
I guess one of my reasons for posting this is cause I'm looking for some owners confidence building. I have an unnerving feeling (even though it rides great and I've yet to have any problems with it) because of what happened with Schwinn and the fact that this never ridden piece of mechanical machinery is seemingly and definitley outdated technology. I cannot find hardly any reviews on this bike. 2001Schwinn Rocket 88 SL. Not on MTBR, The Mountain Bike Magazine WebSite, nothing online. I wish I still had my MountainBike Magazine Review for it.
Another reason is for some preventitive maintenance. I already know about the Titec seatpost defect! But has anyone discovered any other preventitive issues? I know that if the frame is cracked I can hang it on a wall, and I can get rear dropouts and headsets for it, but anything else anyone has come across would be helpfull and greatly appreciated! For now I guess there's only one thing to do, is to ride it and get everything I can out of it!

peace,

woodsrider

Just dusted off this beauty after three years of sitting in the corner of the apartment, never having been ridden. I thought I would put it aside and upgrade the XT componentry when I had the money. Well it's been 3 years now and the money has been spent on other things...During the whole Schwinn-GT fiasco and Supergo's forsight to buy almost everything they had left, I also tried to capitalize on the disaster. I bought 2 frame sets and 2 factory assembled. Of the two frames, one is a Fastback Ltd., and the other a Homegrown Factory. The 2 factory assembled bikes are a Gold Homegrown Ltd. and a Rocket 88 SL.
My logic for not riding the Rocket right away was that I never owned a Full Suspension bike before, so there was no rush to ride it (although I have been dying to). I had a 1999 Bass Boat Blue Homegrown Ltd. all built up and broken in and the new 2001 Gold Homegrown Ltd. race ready, which I bought with the other bikes. So sat the Rocket neglected!
Well now the Gold homegrown Ltd. needs half of a new drive train so I decided, hell the Rocket is brand new. Why not dust off the cob webs get it dialed in and ride it until I can do something with the Hard Tail. After all it should be ready to ride. It's been sitting for 3 years...
Well after throwing a couple of cable sets on it and checking the air in the shocks and all the usual torque adjustments, I had it on the trail for the first time. Now mind you, I only ever rode one FS bike before. I demo'd a Gary Fisher Joshua or maybe it was a Sugar? I forget...it was back in '97 out in Utah, where I learned how to ride on my Moab 2 Cro-moly. (Up North in the Wasatch, not down South in the Desert.) So I don't know jack about how a full suspensions is supposed to feel. I had my shock pump with me on the trail for adjustments, and made them when I got a feel for it. All I can say is that if that is how a FS bike is supposed to feel than it is dialed. It rode SWEET both climbing and downhill, ESPECIALLY DOWNHILL!!!
I guess the only thing I have left to do is dial in the rear shock to how I like it. I did notice that one of the Shock Eye Bolts is just under snug lose, and needs to be tightened. The one closest to the BB.
I guess one of my reasons for posting this is cause I'm looking for some owners confidence building. I have an unnerving feeling (even though it rides great and I've yet to have any problems with it) because of what happened with Schwinn and the fact that this never ridden piece of mechanical machinery is seemingly and definitley outdated technology. I cannot find hardly any reviews on this bike. 2001Schwinn Rocket 88 SL. Not on MTBR, The Mountain Bike Magazine WebSite, nothing online. I wish I still had my MountainBike Magazine Review for it.
Another reason is for some preventitive maintenance. I already know about the Titec seatpost defect! But has anyone discovered any other preventitive issues? I know that if the frame is cracked I can hang it on a wall, and I can get rear dropouts and headsets for it, but anything else anyone has come across would be helpfull and greatly appreciated! For now I guess there's only one thing to do, is to ride it and get everything I can out of it!

peace,

woodsrider


I've recently converted that same blue Homegrown to a single. It's great. I love it.

I also have a the yellow/black Rocket 88 Stage 2. I'd actually like to sell it, since I've upgraded to more travel recently, but it's a great bike. I rode it for 2 + years, no problems. It's been rebuilt a couple times, and after each time it still rides great.

I understand that the bearings are a fairly standard size, should you ever need to replace them (perhaps the same size as skateboard wheels). I also head that very few were ever warrantied.

Great bikes. So sad to see them go away.

thanks dude, hopefully it will be a nice introduction into the full suspension world with no quams!

I also have a yellow/black Rocket 2 - though I upgraded many parts before riding it. It has been great - a little flexy, but I am a clyde. The only thing I can think of is that depending on what rear shock you have it may be better to flip it over and run it upside-down. I've got a Fox Float R (air) and it is easier to get the pump on if you flip the shock.

My three sons ride Rocket 88 Stage 4s, heavily updated. We bought each one for under $500 (we got one for $350 new) when Schwinn was going out. All of the bikes have seen countless trail miles and quite a few 24-hour races and have needed less maintenance than my Santa Cruz Blur. Put a 100mm fork on it and upgrade the drivetrain when you need to. Two of the bikes have all-XT drivetrain, while one has an XT crank but SRAM X9 shifters and rear der.

They are decent bikes although they do bob a lot unless you have a lockout rear shock.

I have a Stage 2 rocket as well, though as soon as I got the FS bug, I upgraded for more travel. The geometry was too racey for me as well. But it made an excellent trail bike in the midwest where the rocks and steeps weren't so prevalent. A lot has changed in the years since this bike was made. I think it would benefit tremendously from a shock upgrade. The parallel link is a wonderful design in the fact that it allows the suspension to remain active under braking, but it bobs a lot more than even simple single pivot designs. I never like the integrated headset, but it worked fine.

I still have my frame sitting around the apartment too and hope to rebuild it one day. I never experience and bearing squeak or movment, so all of that is real sound. It's disc ready and while it's an older bike, some of the newer designs, like Iron Horse's DW link are very similar to the parallel link action of the Rocket design.

So ride it, enjoy it, upgrade it!

I am reading about people having bobbing issues with their rockets. I agree that a shock upgrade is probably due - shock designs have improved a lot since the bike came out...

But, I have never had the bobbing problems that others had.

Guess I am lucky, or just don't notice.

Compered to other similar designs, it really doesn't bob that much. But when I gave son #1 a RockshoX Sid XC rear with lockout, he immediately noticed the difference when climbing. The Fox Vanilla coil-overs on the Stage 4s have no damping and are real pogo sticks.

I have a 2001 Rocket 88 and changed the shock out for a Xfusion O2 pro when I bought the frame (new old stock). Never had any bob at all. I even UNDERpressurized my rear shock to about 75% of my body weight with minimal sag. I just figured it was the suspension design.

Maybe the 2000 year model with the different bottom bracket pivot design bobs more than the 2001 model?

In any case, love my rocket, will ride it until it dies. My XC fork blew a seal so temporarily running a Shiver SC (100 mm travel model) on it. A bit heavy but kinda interesting...

REEK