150mm of trail-gobbling goodness.
When we first unboxed Rocky Mountain's newest rig, the Altitude, the first thing that came to mind was "150mm of trail-gobbling goodness." Slotting in just under Rocky Mountain’s Slayer, in terms of travel, the new Altitude is designated as an aggressive trail bike and it looks as though Rocky has built in the numbers to back that up. With an adjustable head angle which ranges from a slack, to still pretty slack in the steepest setting, Rocky has tweaked the geometry of the Altitude to be longer, slacker, and lower - three of our favorite words. Other updates include higher anti-squat values to improve pedaling performance, increased overall progression and support at the sag point, Boost and Metric spacing, and a claimed increase of 25% more lateral stiffness thanks to the bike’s one-piece seat stay and updated carbon layup.
Even the best looking bike can be ruined by poor geometry, but thankfully Rocky Mountain has put together a good set of numbers for the new Altitude. Utilizing their RIDE-9 adjustable geometry, which allows riders to fine-tune their geometry and suspension with a whopping nine different configurations, the Altitude’s head angle ranges from 65 degrees to 66.1 degrees, bottom bracket drop ranges from 13mm to -1mm, and for the size large frame we rode, the reach can be set between 452mm and 464mm. For a better idea of the bike’s bottom bracket height, we measured our test bike’s bb while setup in the Neutral position to 13.75 inches (349.25mm) with Maxxis 27.5x2.4” WT tires.
That said, a bike with a total of nine possible geometry settings can be a bit overwhelming, and as such, we did our First Ride with the bike setup in the Neutral position only. For our long-term test, we’ll experiment with the RIDE-9 feature more.
Setting off on our maiden ride, it was apparent how well this bike pedaled. Leaving the FOX Float wide-open for anything but paved climbs yielded a bike that still has some give to help smooth out the trail but doesn’t rob you of any effort when it comes time to put down the power. At 458mm, the reach of the Altitude is long enough to be instantly comfortable for our 6’1” mostly-torso tester, even with a nice and short 50mm stem. Overall, we’re impressed with the climbing prowess and overall comfort of the Altitude.
While we haven’t had the opportunity to ride the Altitude on flatter, tamer trails (oh darn), we did get it out on some steeper, more downhill-oriented trails we could see a DH bike dropping in on. And, we have to say, the geometry of the Altitude might just out-ride a few of the components found on the Carbon 70 model we were riding. If you’re going to push this bike super hard, you’re going to want a reservoir shock like they spec on the Carbon 90 build, but we still got along fine with the FOX Float in-line shock found on the Carbon 70 kit. The geometry of this bike really begs to be ridden hard, and we found ourselves pushing heavily into corners and charging heels-down in the steeps. While the trails we rode were void of any chunky rock sections, we’ll be putting the bike through its paces back on our home trails which definitely have their fair share of the rough stuff.
Even with our limited time aboard the bike, we’re comfortable saying Rocky Mountain built quite the ripper with the new Altitude. With geometry often found on 160mm bikes and bigger, we found ourselves forgetting we were on a trail bike the moment the wheels pointed downhill. Paired with a stacked list of cool features like their highly adjustable RIDE-9 geometry, integrated chain retention, and an internal cable management system that rides silent, we’re looking forward to spending more time aboard the Altitude during our long-term test. Stay tuned.
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