Rocky Mountain Altitude...
My friend Parker Roenfanz, who lives in Colorado and works for Rocky Mountain Bicycles, graciously offered bikes from his demo fleet for us to ride on our 4-day adventure. I opted for a large carbon Rocky Mountain Altitude.
For comparison, I should mention my current (personal) fleet:
2016 Pivot Mach 429 Trail (currently a 29'er)
2017 Ibis Mojo 3 (currently 27.5 x 2.80)
I also should mention I typically ride Minnesota trails (well managed/maintained) and trails around Washington DC (some maintained and some are fairly rugged). The riding out here in Albuquerque and Los Alamos is quite a departure from what I have grown accustomed to. First, elevation... we're over a mile high here... and the cactus and thorny shit growing in to the trails ;-)
At first I was not in love with the Altitude. It felt like the front-end was super heavy, and the turn-in was much quicker than I was expecting a bike focused on downhill activity would be. At this point I should mention, I had not ridden a bike from this category previously. Therefore, my impressions were grounded in ignorance at this point.
I adjusted the brake levers to more of a Motocross style and raised the stem to the top of the stack and I was liking the bike a great deal more.
Unfortunately the ride began at the bottom of the hill... and as nice as the Altitude seems to climb, it kind of tainted the experience. Now, here is one place where the Altitude shines.. it is a delight to carry. (Pinkbike reports it's almost 28 pounds) There were a few sections of hike-a-bike that legitimately required carrying and the bike felt fairly light and balanced over the shoulder.
Once we managed to find some flowy downhill is where the bike and I really bonded. I still couldn't get the front end in the air as easily as I would have liked, but the bike made up for that with the amazing poise through the corners. It would turn-in predictably, accepted mid-corner adjustments and would pop out of the turn with little fanfare. The significance of how important this would be showed when I was post-bonk... almost cramping and felt like I was going to die. I attribute the ease of those sections to how planted the suspension remained and geometry that remained manageable, regardless of what I was doing - within reason (tm).
Pros:
For comparison, I should mention my current (personal) fleet:
2016 Pivot Mach 429 Trail (currently a 29'er)
2017 Ibis Mojo 3 (currently 27.5 x 2.80)
I also should mention I typically ride Minnesota trails (well managed/maintained) and trails around Washington DC (some maintained and some are fairly rugged). The riding out here in Albuquerque and Los Alamos is quite a departure from what I have grown accustomed to. First, elevation... we're over a mile high here... and the cactus and thorny shit growing in to the trails ;-)
At first I was not in love with the Altitude. It felt like the front-end was super heavy, and the turn-in was much quicker than I was expecting a bike focused on downhill activity would be. At this point I should mention, I had not ridden a bike from this category previously. Therefore, my impressions were grounded in ignorance at this point.
I adjusted the brake levers to more of a Motocross style and raised the stem to the top of the stack and I was liking the bike a great deal more.
Unfortunately the ride began at the bottom of the hill... and as nice as the Altitude seems to climb, it kind of tainted the experience. Now, here is one place where the Altitude shines.. it is a delight to carry. (Pinkbike reports it's almost 28 pounds) There were a few sections of hike-a-bike that legitimately required carrying and the bike felt fairly light and balanced over the shoulder.
Once we managed to find some flowy downhill is where the bike and I really bonded. I still couldn't get the front end in the air as easily as I would have liked, but the bike made up for that with the amazing poise through the corners. It would turn-in predictably, accepted mid-corner adjustments and would pop out of the turn with little fanfare. The significance of how important this would be showed when I was post-bonk... almost cramping and felt like I was going to die. I attribute the ease of those sections to how planted the suspension remained and geometry that remained manageable, regardless of what I was doing - within reason (tm).
Pros:
- not ridiculously expensive
- clean pivot design
- fairly light and balanced
- composed riding in seemingly any condition
Cons:
- longer chainstays aren't my thing (so, not a fault of the bike, but something to consider if you like pop and hucking the bike around)
- not as popular as other brands - making it tough to find a dealer. However, I expect that to change.
Bottom line:
The Altitude might not be the right bike for me and my current riding conquests... but it is truly a great bike for riding out here. After riding the Altitude for a few days, I am very interested in finding which bike of theirs would fit my riding style better as I think they offer great value, they seem to be cool company, and have a solid product.
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