Rocky Mountain Altitude 2013 650B

dogboy73

What happened to this bike? Not seen much of it at all since the launch ride video appeared about mid way through last year. It looked really good back then. Have there been any reviews of this bike yet?!

dogboy73

Maybe it was an April fools joke? Vapourware!!

peter413

Rocky Mountain are struggling in the UK at the moment I think, Evan's are currently the importer and they are bleeding useless! I tried to get a part for my Flatline off them last summer and I'm still technically waiting on it (never cancelled the order) but they just kept saying it's been ordered from Rocky whenever I phoned up. So I phoned Rocky up and they offered to send one out there and then direct to me but I ended up getting one machined at my LBS. That same LBS has been having real difficulties getting parts off Evans, they just won't send them for some reason and he had a few Rocky's that needed parts in his shop, I think he ended up having to machine parts for those as well.

In fact it gets worse than that, when I ordered the part they asked exactly what bike/frame it was I had and a few days later they called saying they were just about to order the whole new bike for me :shock: Quickly put them straight that it was just the one part I wanted, not a whole new bike that would cost me £4000 so they just kept saying they'll order it, it's on its way, we'll call you when it's ready etc etc and I'm still waiting on that call. Obviously if it does come now I'm not buying it. Really hope someone else will pick Rocky up or they import themselves because they make some great bikes, would love an Element eventually.

lawman

Evans really are useless, such a shame as Rocky Mountain make great bikes, my dad's had an element for years and its never put a foot wrong, the quality is great it actually rides really nicely for an xc bike and the altitude would be very near the top of my demo list, it looks like it could be a super bike!

This one was built on vitalmtb -


Stunning bike, looking forward to a mag spending some proper time on one as on paper it looks like a cracker!

dogboy73

I'm actually in Australia now. I contacted a couple of Rocky stockists here (including what I think is the main distributor in Oz) for an ETA on these. They replied saying they had ridden one, thought it was fantastic and would contact me when they knew more about getting them in. That was a few months ago and I've heard nothing since. Also a bit surprised we've seen next to nothing about these in any magazines. There was a short preview in MBR a few months back ...... Since then it's all gone quiet! :?

dogboy73

Is anyone else interested in this bike ...... Or am I the only one?! :oops: I actually like the idea of 650B and the adjustable geometry. But maybe these are being seen as just gimmicks, which is why this bike has barely been mentioned. There's just nothing out there! If you google this bike you mainly get articles about the launch ride! There's little else out there :? I'm going off the idea of this bike as a result ...... Back on the Norco Site trail me thinks

lawman

It may have been launched, but I know for a fact that the bikes ridden on the launch we were pre-production, so there may be a delay for whatever reason, hence why no one has had an in depth ride on one yet. Ibis launched the Ripley over a year ago and it's still not on sale.

I too am intrigued by 650b, I'm not a 29er fan at all, I just don't like how they ride and the geometry feels abit weird on most of them. I'll have to try to see how they ride, but it certainly looks interesting and the Altitude I linked before is a stunning bike. There is a lot of support behind it, schwalbe, continental and maxxis are making tyres, Stan's rims, fox are testing new 650b forks, so they must think its going somewhere, will have to wait and see!

dogboy73

lawman wrote:

It may have been launched, but I know for a fact that the bikes ridden on the launch we were pre-production, so there may be a delay for whatever reason, hence why no one has had an in depth ride on one yet. Ibis launched the Ripley over a year ago and it's still not on sale.

It's bad marketing really - they make a big fuss about this thing, launch ride with press/media invites, videos on YouTube, big overhaul of the website ...... And then it goes dead! If I was ready to buy a new bike now (which I'm not by the way) I'd obviously have to start looking at alternatives if I was set on a 2013 650B Altitude because close to 8 months after the 'Launch Ride' we've hardly seen or heard anything! :?

http://altitude.bikes.com/en/press/

Posted June 14th 2012 saying check back soon for reviews!

I too am intrigued by 650b, I'm not a 29er fan at all, I just don't like how they ride and the geometry feels abit weird on most of them. I'll have to try to see how they ride, but it certainly looks interesting and the Altitude I linked before is a stunning bike. There is a lot of support behind it, schwalbe, continental and maxxis are making tyres, Stan's rims, fox are testing new 650b forks, so they must think its going somewhere, will have to wait and see!

The appeal to me, and why I liked the look of this bike so much, is you would expect the wheel size to help rolling over obstacles but it's no so large (29" large) that it effects the geometry of the bike. What's more the frame design has been developed around this wheel size and not just adopted for it. And you can adjust the geometry on the fly to suit riding style. All sounds like a very, very nice package ....... Well, it will do once it shows up

BigAirNig

I ride a 2009 model and do like it.. I had a previous email reply from Rocky and have emailed them a link to this thread - so hope they can clarify further for us all !!

As an aside - I have had problems tracking down replacement bearings/bushings for the suspension joints ....

Rocky said try a European bearing company - but no joy there. Why can't Evans answer this (I did try!!)

I could get Rocky to send them direct - but maybe more pricey ....

Great bikes - and we need better back up in the UK I feel.

Let's see what they say ?

Nig

peter413

Yeah, Rocky were great when I emailed them, had no problems offering to send them out there and then and the parts themselves were decent prices. The postage/custom fees etc. were going to cost about $50 though :shock: Bear in mind that's coming from Canada though so obviously wasn't going to only be a fiver or something.

I managed to get replacement bushings from Igus for my Flatline, they were pretty cheap as well. They were about half the price my LBS could get hold of them off Evans (if they were eventually going to sell to him anyway) so I ended up giving some to him in return for machining the part I needed. Give them a shot, I dunno about your bike but the Flatline is actually specced with Igus bushings in the breakdown of all the parts which is how I managed to find them.

Surprised you haven't been able to find bearings though. Give Katec Bikes a shout on Ebay. He managed to get me some bearings for my Flatline I was having difficulty finding for a decent price, they would have cost £30 each at the cheapest place I could find, he found me both for £20 or something and they seem good so far.

BigAirNig

Excellent thanks ... will look in to that !

lawman

Ironically a review just turned up on vitalMTB

http://www.vitalmtb.com/product/guide/B ... -MSL,11746

Sounds like it would benefit from a shock tune and as I thought, the Fox remote on the rear shock is stupid.

BigAirNig

Rocky Mountain replied to my e-mail

---

Hello Nigel,

Thanks for the head’s up, we do have several people who monitor these types of sites but I do not know of anyone who monitors this particular site.

For anyone in the UK the unfortunate answer is that there is currently no distributor in the UK so we do not have a solution to get bikes into this market. The UK is a very important market for us and we are exploring options to have a strong presence there again.

As far as any current Rocky Mountain owners are concerned that can contact us at this email address and we will deal with them directly. To alleviate some of the freight concerns we offer $25 freight for up to 2kg. I deal with customers from the UK almost daily and we will do everything we can to keep their bike serviced and running well.

Jeff

info@bikes.com