Altitude Sickness

So this 650b thing has been intriguing me a bit lately, after listening to Bardsley going on and on about the medium-wheeled bikes he’s been riding and reviewing. The Rocky Mountain Altitude was one of the bikes that piqued my interest, so when Jonty at Revolution Bicycles told me he had a fresh demo 750 MSL in his mitts, I just had to take a spin. Here’s the dirt…

Carbon front triangle, 7005 alloy rear moving on ABC angular contact bushings pushing a Fox Float CTD shock to get 150mm travel. That little square bit at the top shock mount is the Ride 9 flip chip, allowing you to fine tune the geometry and suspension characteristics between nine different settings. This is set in the slackest geometry mode. Have a virtual adjust of the settings here…

Medium; it’s the frame and wheel size. The bulge is the housing for the shock mount. It’s a seriously stiff frame.

The stiff rear end is helped by a 142×12 Maxle and nice big ABC pivots. X9 looks after the shifts and Jonty even left on the Dork Disc for us. Nobby Nics always do the job, this time on Sun Ringle Inferno rims.

No, it’s not a DOSS lever, but the remote to switch the rear shock between Climb, Trail and Descend modes.

The dropper post du jour is definitely the Reverb Stealth. Smooth action and clean lines (or lack of).

Bottoms up. Down below we have a Press Fit BB, ISCG05 tabs, and a big-ass carbon BB/down tube/seat tube junction. 36/24 rings on the Race Face Turbine crankset.

Tapered head tube and Fox Float 34 CTD fork. Race Face cockpit of 60mm stem and 725mm alloy bar.

Those Canadians know how to design a trail bike, eh?  Without any specific setting up of the suspension, the bike showed enough to indicate it will be a killer weapon for fast, technical trail riding and Enduro racing. It would be good to play around with the Ride 9 settings and see what difference they make. I felt like it would benefit from a steeper head angle and a plusher rear suspension feel; no problem, that’s catered for. The wheels, well if you don’t believe the hype, go and try them; it’s only early days on them for me, but they actually could be the magic number. Maybe Bardsley’s not so crazy after all…