#Rocky mountain altitude plus

While there’s less travel at the rear than on Rocky Mountain’s 26in bikes, the bigger wheels plus pedal-and-brake-neutral four-bar suspension layout maintains excellent connection on technical trails. Their excellent damping keeps your rubber on the trail however fast and hectic it gets. The slight stickiness of the latest generation Fox FIT forks is hidden in the smoother rolling character of the larger wheels. The suspension is very well balanced for pushing the pace and sucking up what you can’t suddenly flick round too. As a result we were grinding our way up serious rocky sections with far more ease than on a conventional 26in wheeled bike despite the relatively high overall weight. The forward weight balance keeps the nose down on steep climbs too, adding to its naturally straight and direct approach to the trail, and the extra traction of the big wheels, to make it an outstanding technical climber.

The fact your weight is right forward reduces the chance of twist in the low front end compared to bikes you ride from the back. This encourages you to work the fork into corners and through rock slots, making the most of the screw-through 15mm axle fork. The super-steep seat angle puts you in a naturally commanding position over the front of the bike. Unlike many 29ers the front end is fairly slack and the mid width bar and mid length stem means it sticks to a line resolutely rather than being super-responsive. Despite some radical angles carried over from the 26in bikes it’s obvious very quickly that the Altitude 29 is the right side of the line. It’s taken a while for the majority of 29ers to feel right, rather than decidedly wonky in the handling department.

Rocky mountain altitude