After making the hard decision to replace the trusty Giant Reign, it took me a while to decide what my next bike would be. It's always hard to part with a bike that you have so many good memories with.
I had been eyeing off a Rocky Mountain Slayer for a while, but in the end I decided to go with the Rocky Mountain Altitude, with 160mm front and 150mm rear travel it's definitely got the travel to have a lot of fun! The final build weight of the Altitude came in at 13.2kg with tubeless setup.
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The final build on this bike is a fairly simple process, it comes mostly assembled, so it's just a matter of removing all the protective padding and finishing off the build:
- Converting to tubeless
- Installing the front brake calliper and wheel
- Install the handlebars
- The dropper outer cable is already installed in the frame, so it super quick to install and setup the seat post
- Fine tune the gears
If purchasing a built bike from Pushys, all of this will be completed by Pushys before re-boxing into a larger box and shipping. When the bike arrives at your house, you will usually have to un-clip the handlebars from the side of the bike, and attach them to the stem.
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Seeing the actual bike in the flesh, I can now say that the finish quality and overall appearance is very impressive. I just love that blue! The internal routing keeps things looking clean, and aside from the weight benefits, the smooth finish of a carbon frame really is worth the money in my opinion, especially when you're buying one bike to do it all!
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The Altitude Carbon 70 comes in two different drive train options, either Shimano XT or Sram Eagle GX. In the past I've always ridden Shimano, but this time I opted to try out 12 speed and went for the Eagle GX build. So far the groupset has worked flawlessly, and the extra gearing really does make a difference on steep climbs.
Now, time to go for another ride!
By David Carruthers