zekepunzel

Cool bike, but between the wide tubeset, low slung frame, and seattube gusset, there's not much room for a frame bag which will deter bikepackers who otherwise might be interested. Also doesn't seem to have braze-ons for a rear rack.

Have you had a chance to ride the Mavens? I’m not normally a big fan of SRAM brakes, but have been really impressed with the absolute power of them. Having ridden Shimano, Shigura, Magura, Hayes Dominions, and a very short test ride on Hope Tech 4 V4s, I do think the Mavens can offer the most power, especially if you pair the metallic pads with HS2 rotors. One of our frequent shop customers is a 300lb guy that rides hard. Mavens are the only brake he’s been able to have work for him consistently. That power combined with readily available parts, and the easiest and most effective bleed procedure of any brake (imo) make it a super solid option. To be fair, I still run Hayes Dominion A4s on my bikes because they have enough power for me and I like the lever feel (and colors haha) but I wouldn’t discount the Mavens until you try them!

Wait, you guys can only have hitch racks that mount to a ball hitch?? That seems so much sketchier than a 2in hitch receiver. I'd much rather have a square that slides perfectly into another square on the back of my vehicle instead of something that has to clamp to and balance on a ball.

I’ve had my ‘24 Altitude for a few months now and agree with Dario’s conclusions. It’s felt great when charging straight down consistently rocky/rooty terrain, and handles heavy impacts like big drops well. I noticed it’s a bit less predictable when combining chunky terrain with big g-outs and compressions. Overall, I’m happy with it. I do wish I could get a reach figure closer to 490/495 for my 6’3” height. Also, the shock is very annoying to swap out. I’ve swapped shocks 3 times on this bike, and it requires Rocky’s own special bearing extractor tool to swap their mounting hardware. The biggest annoyance is that you need to pull said mounting bearings off just to swap springs on most coil shocks.