Sea Otter 2013: Rocky Mountain Bikes

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Rocky Mountain
Don’t worry, we still have lots of stuff to bring to you from the recent Sea Otter event. Here’s one that should please the old school fans of this Canadian brand. Rocky is going to be back in the UK this year.

Rocky Mountain had a couple of new bikes to show us; the Altitude and the Instinct. The Altitude is a new 27.5in, 150mm bike and the Instinct is a 130mm 29er.

Starting with the Altitude 950, it’s a 150mm trail bike with 27.5in wheels. It’ll come in several models, with the top of the range being the carbon framed 790. The bike here is the 770, with a carbon front and aluminium rear. There’s 150mm travel front and rear and there’s a nine-position adjustable ‘chip’ that’ll adjust the shock (and therefore the head tube angle and BB height) to give a 1.72 degree adjustment, from 66.9 to 68.1°.

Classic Canadian heritage on show
150mm of medium-wheel action
Even more flash models are available.

The base model starts at US$2899, going up to a lofty $6800. Rocky Mountain reckons that it’s going to be going after the market traditionally occupied by the Rocky Mountain Slayer.

Meanwhile, over in big wheel land, the Instinct is a new 29er with 130mm travel and looks to be aimed at the riders after an all-round, capable 29er trail bike.

Neat looking moulded-in cable guides on the alloy frame
130mm of big wheel action.
The curved top tube is a bit of a Rocky Mountain icon these days.

 

After a couple of years out of the UK, Rocky Mountain now has an importer in the shape of Rocky Mountain UK, which aims to demo the bikes around the UK this year and build up some dealers after Rocky’s couple of years’ absence.

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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