2024 Rocky Mountain Altitude Review

The last iteration of the Rocky Mountain Altitude was a fantastic bike which blurred lines between heavy-duty trail bike and EDR/EWS race rig. My riding progressed more on that bike than any other. The completely redesigned Altitude lays the previous trail bike equation to rest, and aims to rule enduro races or mob comfortably down ridiculous grades. It might even push me further down the road of progression on my continuing dirt journey.

Over the past few months, I've ridden the Altitude C70 Coil model on nearly every ride. You can check out the spec and first look photos here. Since moving to the Sunshine Coast, I've shuttled less tech-gnar, and pedaled to more jumps. There's no doubt in my mind Rocky Mountain has taken the Altitude to a whole 'nother level, so let me tell you how it's fared so far.

Suspension & Setup

Fox 38 / 170mm travel

113 PSI
HSC: 4 (clicks from closed) // LSC: 4
HSR: 5 // LSR: 12

Fox DHX2 Factory / 160mm travel

550LB spring
HSC: 5 // LSC: 4
HSR: 4 // LSR: 10

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I’m lucky to be familiar with the excellent Fox DHX2 coil shock. The Altitude tech manual suggests a 550lb spring for my 202lb/92kg self, so I swapped the stock 500lb spring for 550lb, landing at 18mm sag, a hair less than the 19-21mm recommended. I usually prefer to run my suspension firm, but the rear wheel grip felt high and didn’t wallow into the midstroke, so I stuck with the 550lb spring.

Rocky Mountain reduces the 65mm stroke of the DHX2 down to 60mm. Those tempted to pull the travel reducers out for slightly more squish will break the frame (and void your warranty) - so don’t.

At the front end, I started with 110PSI in the Fox 38, my usual pressure for the 170mm travel air spring. After a few weeks of riding, the fork felt somewhat harsh, so I checked the pressure. Sure enough, I had dropped to 101PSI, and brought it up to 113 PSI. In my experience, small-bump performance of the 38 isn’t facilitated well by the mid-stroke travel zone, which is the zone the fork lived in with less air. It feels counter-intuitive to increase air pressure for small-bump performance, so keep a watchful eye if something feels awry and get that shock pump out.

Climbing

Not necessarily party time here, but the 2024 Altitude climbs well for a race-ready enduro bike, tire inserts and all. My test bike arrived with a 175mm Fox Transfer dropper post, though I’d much prefer a 200mm dropper as stock. Longer/slacker/lower geometry has progressed with the new Rocky, as the wheelbase grows 33mm - not insignificant! The stretch is offset by a 77.5° seat tube angle (1.5° more upright than the previous generation), and a slacker HA of 63.2°, tightening up the seated cockpit position. The updated geometry values end up being much more comfortable on longer climbs, while commanding the front wheel easily.

There is an immense amount of grip through the rear wheel. Off the bat, I wondered if this grip would transmit forward energy directly into the ground, but the LC2R platform pedals very well on serpentine climb trails, with minimal bob - whether the climb switch is engaged or not. Punching up unexpected rocks or roots keeps forward momentum instead of sinking deep into the mid stroke, a welcome change from the last generation of Altitude. Ascending smooth pitches, I’d use the climb switch, but open it up for technical bits to make sure I’m going to clean crux climbing moves. I’ve unexpectedly climbed a few nasty pitches I'd previously managed only on lighter dual-link bikes. Despite the 36lb stock weight, the Altitude climbs surprisingly well, without forcing me to hack up a lung.

Descending

Party time! Until I could source a 550lb spring for the Fox DHX2, I had a few rides with the stock 500lb spring. Riding an undersprung bike feels fairly wonky, but impressively, the mid stroke support felt very high without reaching end-stroke progressivity on medium sized hits.

Once the proper spring was installed, I found a versatile test track: 150m of steep, greasy steps wind through tentacles of roots, slackening into natural loamy tech-flow. As the loam recedes, an endless series of off-camber corners and small drops quickly decide if you’re flowing or trickling. Pushing into the natural undulations and nailing crucial braking points reward a focused rider with speed, though pedal-catching stumps and logs threaten to feed you a trailside snack of tree bark. You really have to be on your game to flow through this section cleanly. Finally, a low angle blast through mossy loam is interspersed with a few jumps and flat corners, ending in a glorifying brakeless 200m straightaway. 

I dropped into the opening chute, trepidatious of whether I’d be able to control my speed, or skid off into the gnarled forest. The Altitude laughed and said “you got this!”, the 63.2° HA combined with 450mm chainstays asserting themselves as steep terrain tamers. I was able to keep my body position forward, instead of hanging far behind the saddle for dear life. After the gnar of steep rolls into holes tapered, I fought my fingers to stay off the brakes and pushed into every undulation, gaining momentum. Carrying higher velocity into the lower corners unlocked the Altitude's proper operating speed - this is a race bike, remember? Floating over trail chatter and letting the bike devour bumps felt more intuitive than staying on the brakes, as the bike positively came alive! In my head, I was in my favourite bike movie, ripping high speed verdant trails with a crew of buddies. 

The Altitude corners exceptionally well, again, within its operating speed window - so take more speed into your favourite turn next time. If I had a lazy, backseat body position, I’d quickly be reminded to shift my weight forward and let the bike eat. The stiffness of the one-piece rear triangle is apparent, but isn’t so stiff that you’d get tossed out of a corner in an uncontrolled manner. Off-camber traction has long been an Altitude hallmark. This rig is no exception with a stickiness akin to shit on your shoe, but I smell cedar and petrichor instead.

Jumps and drops are a blast on the Altitude. It feels balanced in the air, and gaps are easy to pull for. Pushing the bike into lips and wonky take-offs feels predictable and supported. If I’ve used every last millimeter of suspension, I’ve not felt a single harsh bottom-out, or been bucked off. I suppose I’ll need to tee up some bigger terrain, or attempt to keep up with Ryan and Tim on bike park days.

Mini-interview with Rocky Mountain Product Manger Ken Perras

NSMB: Overall stiffness of the Altitude has increased dramatically compared to the last Altitude. Is stiffness increased everywhere, or focused on one particular axis? 

Ken: Our main goal at the start of the project was to increase both torsional and lateral stiffness at the rear triangle. A common issue amongst our racers and team riders with the previous generation Altitude was the softer rear triangle. A 1-piece rear triangle attached with two short links, one of them being very stiff, was a natural way to increase this stiffness.

I should be clear that stiffness isn’t binary in that it’s either ok or not ok. Ride feel is a personal preference and no one value is absolute. Rather it needs to match the intended use of the bike as well as be a cohesive design with respect to stiffness “feels”. So we had some numbers in mind, aimed for that, and confirmed it by test riding a few different iterations.

NSMB: Can you speak about what kind of kinematic benefits you were specifically trying to achieve with the LC2R platform, and where the 4-bar Smoothlink fell short in kinematic refinements?

Ken: Another goal at the start of the project was to increase mid-stroke support so that you had more of a platform to push against in the active portion of the suspension travel. The previous generation Altitude has incredible sensitivity and good progression to absorb the big hits but lacked that mid travel support. It rode deeper into the travel, and it affected both the balance and composure of the bike when ridden faster in more aggressive terrain. With the new Altitude, we fixed that by tweaking the overall suspension rate. The new bike has a more consistent rate, with better support in the mid-stroke portion of the travel, and a less abrupt ramp at the end of the travel. 

NSMB: Mid-stroke support feels much higher than the last Altitude. Can you explain why this is so significant for the redesign?

Ken: The increase in mid-stroke support means that the bike will ride higher in its travel, absorb impact energy earlier, and leave more travel on tap for the bigger hits. Absorbing impact energy earlier means the bike stays more composed, more balanced. There is a balance that needs to be achieved because there is too much of a good thing. We wanted to retain a level of small bump sensitivity, comfort, so we had to play around with the suspension kinematic to ensure we didn’t take things too far or leave any performance gains on the table.

NSMB: The downtube storage is huge. What kind of "out of the box" things have you seen transported in it for giant rides/comfort/humorous anecdotes? 

Ken: Well first off I’m loving putting my mid-weight knee pads in there. I can fit a pair of Akta knee pads with a bit of massaging, folding of the pads. Any small pad, like a Sam Hill lite from 7IPD will slide in easily.

I do have a funny story about the size of the PenaltyBox. I did a triple crown last summer on the hottest day of the year. I brought 3 spare jerseys with me along with all the usual items needed for such a ride, all stuffed into the downtube. At the end of the ride, I thought I grabbed all the extremely sweaty jerseys from the downtube storage but 3 months later when I was trying to pack the downtube again with a bunch of stuff, I found 1 of them in there all the way at the bottom, wet and stinky…

NSMB: OEM CushCore spec is slick. Was this difficult to implement at the build factory? I caught a video of factory installation taking less than 30 secs/side, when does Rocky drop the installation tool for consumers? 

Ken: There was some head scratching at first as our assembly factory never installed something like this. CushCore (the brand) was on it from the start and worked closely with our assembler to teach them how to install the inserts by hand, and eventually developed a stand-based tool like what you see in [auto] tire shops to mount the wheel on and install the insert. That video you saw was from my boss while he was visiting our assembler in Taiwan. The worker installing the CushCore had Popeye-sized forearms and was installing the heavy duty Pro inserts by hand in about 30 seconds! This was on Maxxis DoubleDown casing tires as well, so overall a pretty difficult package to do by hand with new components.

Build Notes

I primarily ran position 2 on the Ride-4 geometry chip. It’s felt great here, not in full slack mode, but certainly slack enough with a 63.2° headtube angle. I felt comfortable with the 478mm reach, eventually using the supplied reach adjust headset cup at +5mm. The swap was straightforward and took no longer than 5 minutes, the FSA headset bearings felt smooth as if they were new.

The Fox 38 Factory is the fork I've inadvertently ridden the most over the past three years. It's smooth, predictable, and punches through gnarly crap extraordinarily well. The 38 arrived with the Grip2 damper, though I'd be keen to try out the new X2 damper if it improves overall forkin' experience.

The PenaltyBox 2.0 downtube storage has done exactly what it's intended to do. I routinely stuffed it full of an extra layer, a tube, some tools, and snacks. Unfortunately I discovered that a snapped XT derailleur will fit along with those items, and make awful Foley trail music. The door hasn't made a peep over the duration of the test and has kept water out, with the latch engaging smoothly. Dear bicycle universe: this is now the standard for a storage door.

I swapped the Maxxis Assegai Exo+ MaxxGrip front tire out for a more damped Double Down casing, with CushCore Trail inserts, by hand. This is my first experience with the venerable brand of tire inserts. I was relieved to find they’re far easier to wrangle than the Pro version.

The wheels feature a DT Swiss 350 rear hub w/36T star ratchet, and a Rocky Mountain-branded sealed front hub. Can't say I fuss over front hubs too much, as long as the bearings live for a reasonable stretch. DT competition spokes laced to Race Face AR30 rims - not my favourite hoop. This caliber of bike needs a stronger rear rim at the very least, and I've already put a decent flat spot in the back. Regardless, rims are consumables, and I'm relieved CushCore trail inserts come stock. There's no doubt they have saved the AR30 rim countless times from rock strike detonation.

Touch points are handled by the fantastic ODI Elite Pro grips, and WTB Volt Race saddle. Both feel comfortable, and I should likely keep a pair of ODI Elite Pros in my parts bin. I suspect they'll end up on every bike I ride.

I swapped the Shimano XT Trail 4-piston brakes and 203mm RT86 Ice-Tech rotors for Hope Tech 4 V4 brakes. XT trails are a worthy enduro brake, but fall behind in power delivery, especially for a bigger guy like me. If Shimano ever decides to produce a 220mm 6-bolt brake rotor, the Altitude is the bike they should be on - at least up front.

Cable routing is very tidy, and the bike runs nearly silent. Molded protection lives on the bottom of the downtube, and covers any areas susceptible to chainslap on the one-piece rear end. My chainstay protector was a pre-production version. The new production bit covers the CS behind the chainring preventing scratches on the pretty sparkle paint.

The two small fenders have done an admirable job of keeping dirt from being flung upon the rear shock and linkage, which will likely minimize bearing wear over the long run.

Final Thoughts

Rocky Mountain has succeeded in building a burlier race-focused successor to the previous Altitude. Resurrecting the LC2R suspension platform brings much more stability and calm when wading into gruesome terrain. Slow-speed performance on low angle terrain isn't its forte, nor focus. However, we're talking about a race machine that encourages you to ride through rock gardens without braking, enter corners faster, and send that scary jump you've been eying for months. Fleeting moments of invincibility arrive when you're within the optimal operating speed window, and I intend on being in that zone far more often.

I'm curious to try the Altitude C70 Coil with an air shock, and flip the aft shock mount to run a mullet/MX setup. Stay tuned for these updates over the summer.

Rocky Mountain Altitude C70 Coil, $9299 CAD