Rocky Mountain Demo this Friday

We're hosting a Rocky Mountain demo day this Friday March 29th at Jenson USA, Riverside. Come out for some BBQ and a day riding the nearby trails of Sycamore Canyon.

Noon-6pm. Bring helmet, water, your own pedals if you like.

More info on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/437381599678183/

 

Just a bump because i'm sad i'm at work only 2mi away and can't go ride one of these bikes. Have fun.

 

Thanks for a great demo day, as always. Got a good 1.5 hour ride in, looped the park on an awesome bike that has me reconsidering my entire next purchase!

 

I'm looking for a 650b as my next bike.....so today I got to ride the Altitude 27.5 all over Sycamore Canyon.......

 

post or PM me a rundown. You must have been riding it because they didn't have one for me.
I was impressed with the 29ers rear wheel sticking so well that I was tractoring up everything, rocks, steep, sandy, no matter. Out of the saddle I just kept going up, unlike my 26er. Let me know how the 650b rear wheel felt?

 

If you missed this, you can catch it at the Path at Live Oak tomorrow (Saturday Mar 30).

From what I could tell, they seemed to have a full size run of Vertexes (29er XC race HT), lots of Elements (29er XC FS, in BC edition, 999, 990, and 970), at least 6 Altitudes (27.5 FS 150mm), and a couple Slayers (26" 160mm). They were running Conti tires: XKing and Race King on the XC bikes, and Mountain King (German version) on the Slayers. On the Altitudes, they were running Nobby Nics Performance/Dual compound tires (not higher end Evo). A few had Reverb posts and many had some configuration of Fox CTD remote levers. They had a lot of diff saddles too. They were running 725 RaceFace bars (very nice bars) and short stems and the sizes ran a bit small, with me opting for med/large (I like 17-18", 23-24" ETT bikes). The bikes were sort of beat up and were prone to mechanicals, so be prepared with tools like a mini-pump and a set of hex keys.

I rode an Altitude 770 MSL and Element 970 RSL. I liked the Element a lot better, riding it harder, faster, and more daring than the Altitude. I can say that the Nobby Nics killed the Altitude demo experience for me--I didn't like them at all. I find 29er XC tires to have better characteristics. Even though I had my first significant fall in about half a year on the Element, I will still say it's nicer for most of SoCal; it's very capable and confidence inspiring. It could use a stiffer wheel and fork (32 CTD TALAS) though. I can at least say the Altitude pedaled really easily. Whatever 2x config they ran, I pretty much was able to stay in the bigger ring almost the entire time. Seemed more of a spinner though. I punched the Element up to speed like a road bike in comparison. They're nice bikes, but my non-ecstatic impression is due to simply being spoiled by experiencing even nicer rides.

Comparing to my bikes now, I can say the Element handles a lot like my Superfly 100, but with much less out-of-the-saddle pedal bob. As for the Altitude, a better comparison would be to a 27.5 Carbine that I demo'd earlier. The Carbine 27.5 didn't really impress me either, but I liked it a bit *slightly* better than the Altitude, mainly due to the tires. The tires killed my Altitude experience, I have to emphasize. It just doesn't seem to impress me enough to want to experience the fun on it on a more regular basis. I'm personally going to stick to my 29er XC/trail and 26" AM quiver for now; I'm not interested in finding that mythical one bike that does-it-all and selling off my other bikes.

 

I am already biased towards the 650b wheel size and this is the second one I have demoed (the first was the Tracer 27.5). I went to the demo specifically to ride the Altitude and compare it to the Tracer (and not to compare it to a 29r) The Tracer I demoed a few weeks was all aluminum vs. carbon frame/aluminum rear triagle on the Altitude.

First off the Altitude has an adjustable geometry...you can set the rear shock to give you a more slack or steeper seat-tube angle. My demo was set up kind of in the middle with a slight bias towards the slacker setting. However, as soon as I started riding on the trails I realized I was too far back on the saddle and I felt stretched out. So I figured that for me, I would probably set the geo towards the steeper setting for easier pedaling.

However even in the slack geo setting the bike pedaled easier than the Intense when going up-hill. I normally ride 1X9 but on the Intense I had to use the granny gear not so with the Altitude. However, when I started going down-hill and on technical sections, I felt the Intense was smoother and handled the bumps easier than the Altitude.

In the turns, I was really leaning the bike over to see if I could make it wash-out. This bike rails the corners better than the Intense...I remember washing out the Tracer in places where the Altitude just kept rolling along. Once I realized how much I could lean the bike I stopped worrying about it and just enjoyed the ride down McTwist.

But then when I rolled down some of the stunts in Little Moab......I had to get way behind the seat and my arse rubbed against the rear tire a few times and I don't remember that happening with the Intense (and definitely never happens on my 26r unless its really, really steep). When I finished the ride and started heading back towards Jenson's, my lower back was aching again confirming for me that I would adjust the geometry to a steeper setting if I owned this bike.

So in a nut-shell, I felt the Intense performed better in the technical and down-hill stuff but the Altitude was a better climber and much, much better in the turns and flat sections. As far as aesthetics, I don't particularly like the look and color scheme on the Altitude imho the Intense Tracers are much more "sexier-looking" and all the straight lines on the Altitude makes the bike look dated it reminds me of my old 2001 Giant NRS (that's 12 years ago !!!).

And even though they have fun bikes "Rocky Mountain" reminds me of a beer brand and not a bike brand..and the maple leaf on the frame.....I mean, I know they are a proud Canadians behind the brand, but really? Anyway, it was a fun bike to ride but I think you can guess which bike I prefer. However if anyone is interested in the Altitude here's more info from PinkBike

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/2013-Rocky-Mountain-Altitude-27.5-First-Ride.html

 

Well, I tested 3 RM bikes today at The Path but since everyone is debriefing here, I thought I would add my 2 cents. I did two runs on the Element 970 RSL BC (120mm front/95mm rear), 1 run on the Altitude 770 MSL (150mm front/rear), and 1 run on the Instinct 970 (130mm front/rear), and I took out a $1550 Giant Reign X3 for fun. 25 miles of riding and a good time.

I'll agree the bikes were prone to mechanicals. I had to repair someone's chain on the trail. I thought all the tires were underinflated (the reason I took two rides on the Element was the first run I couldn't push it as the tires would have pinched) and someone pinched just running over a curb. I later inflated all my tires to what I'm used to running to avoid pinches, about 35 front, 40 rear and had no issues. The RM crew were very helpful and took the time to get the bikes dialed in just right (stem swaps, stem height adjustments, sag, even a head angle/bottom bracket height adjustment on the Altitude...slack and low, the only way to go, hehe).

So I started off with the Element because everyone at the Path seems to own one so I had to see what the fuss is all about. I'm a newbie at CTD, and I'm used to leaving propedal off on my Santa Cruz, and never touching my CCDB on my Niner, so I just left it on descend. Big mistake. The bike bobs too much and honestly I really hated riding the bike going up. Now I talked to the guys at the booth and they're telling me I really should be using the CTD because even with propedal off, there was some damping so I can't do what I'm used to doing with these new shocks. I didn't learn this until after I switched bikes, but I get a little more saddle time on the Element tomorrow and I'll have to adapt my riding style and use the settings and see if my opinion changes. Downhill, I didn't feel confident with these X-King tires and I didn't push myself too hard, but even with the right tire, I don't feel that I could have pushed very hard on the bike. So the bike isn't exactly my cup of tea.

Next up was the Instinct. I really liked this bike. Going up and down, I had zero issues with the bike. No wandering, playful, very little bobbing, and it was fun pointed down. I think there were Mountain King tires front and rear on this bike, so they were a little more aggressive than the X-King and I felt more confident. I thought it was a nice 1-bike and honestly wouldn't mind owning one if they made it in carbon fiber. I can't say enough about how well it climbed as a 130mm travel 29er. Try one, seriously!

Last was the Altitude. On descend, I thought it bobbed like a Salsa. I had to keep it on trail or climb to really enjoy the bike, but with those settings, it was really nice. I also felt it climbed better than the Intense, but then again, I didn't play with CTD settings on that bike. On the descents, I did wash that front Nobby Nic and I had to put a foot down. I really think a Hans Dampf would have been a better front tire choice and would make the bike a little more tail happy (felt neutral). I do have lots of trail time on Nobby Nics as that's what I run on my TRc, so it didn't ruin my day. Anyway, the Altitude was pretty fast going down The Luge, so I felt pretty comfortable riding hard and set a PR on all the downhill segments of the trail.