2021 Rocky Mountain Altitude

Rider/ Writer – Sam Garrett

January 12th, 2021





2021 Rocky Mountain Altitude review

This is my new bike is a 2021 Rocky Mountain Altitude alloy 30 29er. This is Rocky Mountain’s Enduro Bike, that already won the first round of the EWS by Jesse Melamed. It has 170mm of travel up front and 160 in the back and meant for smashing the downhills. I’m going to go over the parts and give a mini review for the components.

First, I will start will the frame, it has protective guards all over it and on the downtube, the internal routing is easy to get cables through the frame. The suspension platform is the FSR linkage with the ride 9 adjustment chip to the alter the geometry, the frame also lets you change the wheelbase by 10 mm. It also has ISCG mounts for a Bash guard, and it already comes with a chain guide from one up components. The frame is very nice and well thought out, I have no complaints on it.

Next, the suspension. In the front there is a Marzocchi Bomber Z1 with an Evolution grip damper, set up at 170mm of travel. It has plenty of room for a bigger tire, and a mug guard. In the back I have a Fox Float DPX2 with 160mm of travel. The shock has rebound, compression, and air adjustment. The shock feels great and is not that loud as other shocks. The fork is a different story though, it feels good and supple, but in less than 2 weeks it started creaking and cracking bad and is very annoying now.

Third, I will go the drive train. It has the new 12 speed Shimano Deore group set. This comes with the Deore cassette, Derailleur, and Shifter. This work good together, and it is impressive how good it shifts. Bu the derailleur's clutch is lacking behind, When the derailleur first starts to move it's like the clutch is not even on. It is also less smooth than the Sram derailleur equivalent to it. Now let's talk about the Crankset on it, The Deore crank set worked smooth at first and had no issues, it has a 32-tooth chain ring on it, but pair with a 29er Enduro bike I would prefer a 30t chain ring. I noticed in my garage that the crankset loosened up and the crank was not fully on the spindle, the cranks were also bolt checked before this. So, I Put the crank back on, and used a torque wrench to tighten it up, And the same thing happened a day later but this time it was on a ride. Another thing about these cranks is that you must have a special wrench to tighten the preload cap on the end of the crank, and no one is going to have this tool on a ride or in their car.

Also, the brakes that are on this are the Shimano MT4120 which is a 4-piston brake but still the same lever that is found on Shimano’s 30$ Mt200. I put a set of Sram Code R downhill brakes on that are a perfect fit for this bike. The bike comes stock with a 180 mm rotor in the back and a 200mm rotor in the front, this is a good combination and gives you lots of power.

The wheels and tires on this bike are also not bad, the wheels are WTB I30, which is a 30mm inner width on it and ready to be set up tubeless with rim tape already installed. The rim is laced to Shimano’s MT410 hubs, the rear hub had 36points or 10degrees of engagement. This is a good amount of engagement for the price of one of these hubs, it helps if you are a person to do more trials. The tires are a Maxxis minion DHF (2.5”) and DHR (2.5”), these tires are ready to be set up tubeless and very durable. They are not the fastest rolling tires, but provide loads of traction when needed, no complaints there.

I have also had trouble with the Rocky Mountain Toonie dropper post, it worked smoothly for a week, then after two weeks the smoothness of the dropper decreased, and it was difficult to push the dropper post down without sitting on it or pushing it at the right angle.

In conclusion, this bike is ready for anything you throw at it, it will smash the downhills, but can still pedal uphill when needed. For 3,600$ retail as the time of this review, the price is worth it for what you get from Rocky Mountain.

Specifications are on the next page.