“The 20th anniversary of this classic steel machine still makes us drool.”
From Singletrack Magazine Issue 22, ‘Bike Porn’, July 2005
The Blizzard has been around years now (since 1984 in fact) and it looks the same now as it did way back then, which may or may not be due to the fact that Rocky claim the same guy is welding them now as did back then. It’s still just a stee diamond in the old traditional way that all bikes used to look and it’s made from 853 Reynolds steel. At first glance you may be forgiven for not paying it too much attention if you were to come across it leaning against a wall outside a café or bike shop. To find the porn you have to look deeper. But it is there, visible for all to see from every direction.
Firstly, have a look at the paintjob. With the Blizzard you get just the one colour scheme — black and white. Always has been and always will be. A five-year old Blizzard may have more scratches on it and older bits and bobs but it’s still the same old black and white. But that paint job of the five-year old bike may share a common colour but what it doesn’t share is the same placement of maple leaves, and that’s because every Blizzard is hand finished with two powder coats before the final maple leaf design is laid in by hand. The final positioning of each painted maple leaf is decided by the mood of the painter who lacquers them down.
To stretch our ‘porn’ metaphor to breaking point, this bike is less about tits and ass and more personality and the upbringing. It’s the way this bike is manufactured by a company that prides itself enough to forego any ideas of mass production for cheap profit in return for total meticulous control over every aspect of its production. Rocky Mountain could outsource all its production to the eager far eastern welding factories — from a business point of view it’s a no brainer – but they don’t. Instead the welding is done right where the bosses can see it being done in Vancouver, Canada. The welders there don’t get to join anything together unless they’ve got a year’s experience and just to make sure they don’t cock up, or to make sure they get their arses kicked if they do, they have to sign for every bike they weld. Not on some chitty of paper that gets filed away either. Instead, they sign the a tag that goes with actual frame itself. And not just the frame gets signe for but the wheels too, which are also hand-built on the same factory floor as the frame they eventually get stuck on.
The components are not overfacing. This bike isn’t cheap and yet Rocky Mountain has resisted the temptation to lavish it with unnecessary XTR and carbon. What you get is solid XT and Race Face kit that is more about quality function than weight saving. Porn without the pimp, and much better for it.
The Race Face stem, with its mirror chrome finish, is as ‘tarty’ as it gets — it’s all about classy function. Its persona would be a clean, well dressed, but not overstated, athlete with impeccable manners.
The ride is very well balanced and the trademark sloping top tube gives plenty of clearance and the steel frame gives a very nicely tuned spring to bumps. The result is a comfortable hardtail ride that offers enough space and balance to pick out the lines and ride over surprisingly big stuff with none of the shock that an aluminium hardtail would give.
It all adds up to a unique ‘fingerprint’ that characterises each ‘off the peg’ bike like no Blizzard or mine or ‘hers’. Not custom made but each one different enough that you quickly develop a feeling of unique ownership that you rarely get with an off the peg bike. The fact that it rides so well to boot makes this one of the finest ‘right’ looking hardtails we have ever come across.
Here’s to another 20 years of the Blizzard.
That’s the wrong one to drool over IMO.
My obsession with MTB’s was started by an early RM Blizz in Freewheel Nottingham.  White and black but had Syncros rigid forks, Syncros stem, bars and seat post, bullseye cranks and XT group set.  Not sure exactly what year it was (91?) but can still remember it now, I’d have bought it in a heartbeat if I wasn’t a skint apprentice at the time!
That was a nice bike. I had that same 2005 frame with black Z2 ETA forks. Built with XT inc original XT 4 pot brakes, l have them in a box stiil, and the RaceFace stem and post. I locked out (or locked down, that was a cool feature) the forks, put a bar bag and rack pack on it and rode through cols of the Alps for a week on it in 2006. The frame was sold to a fast and well-known XC rider who was intending to convert it to SS. Doesn’t the geometry look odd now.Â
“To stretch our ‘porn’ metaphor to breaking point, this bike is less about tits and ass and more personality and the upbringing."
Times have changed….
I still have a Blizzard frame, from around ‘93. The only other surviving part is the Race Face seat post.
The fact that an aluminium post hasn’t siezed in a steel frame after over 30 years is testament to the quality.
From new it was a mix of Race Face components, XT and a Marzocchi fork.
My mate still has a scandium framed Vertex of roughly the same vintage.
I still have my 1998 RM Blizzard which I rode for many years. They were awesome bikes and helped me discover the joys of riding twisty singletrack.
“With the Blizzard you get just the one colour scheme — black and white. Always has been and always will be."
Looks like Rocky Mountain currently use the Blizzard name for a couple of fat-tyred carbon ebikes, with blue-black and copper-black fades rather than black and white maple leaf finishes.