Tested: Rocky Mountain Altitude C70

BIKE Magazine aims to feature only the best products and services. If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.

Rocky Mountain’s latest Altitude is a head-turner with its new suspension layout, two-tone paint, and geometry adjustability. I spent a few weeks on the Altitude this spring, and then Jack Goodwin, who shoots many of our review photos, rode the same test bike before ultimately buying one for himself. So this review will deviate a little from our usual format, with my impressions as usual, interspersed with Jack’s take.

Jack’s faster than me and more race-focused – his riding style is more active, and over the front of the bike, as opposed to my more neutral default, so it was fun to bounce impressions off each other, especially since he ended up liking the Altitude enough to make it his own.

Rocky Mountain Altitude in a Nutshell

• Travel: 160 mm (rear) 170 (front)
• Wheel Size: 29” or Mixed 29”/27.5”
• Size Tested: Large
• Head Tube Angle: 62.9-63.7°
• Bike Weight: 35.5 lbs (16.1 kg)
• Partial build weight (complete bike without wheels, tires, rotors, or cassette): 22.5 lbs (10.2 kg)

The Rocky Mountain Altitude is available now, or at your local dealer.

Rocky Mountain Altitude Review

What’s New?

There are a lot of new things going on here, as we covered in our intro article , so give that a read if you’re not familiar with all the changes Rocky made to the latest Altitude. But the short version is the new Altitude uses a sort-of new suspension platform that ditches the classic Horst Link, in favor of a dual, counter rotating link design. Rocky says this allowed them to build a stiffer rear triangle, make the bike pedal more efficiently, and keep the center of gravity lower.

Frame Details

The Altitude’s frame has a bunch of well-considered and well-executed details. The Penalty Box 2.0 in-frame storage is excellent, and the AirTag holder is appreciated.

The RIDE-4 system is more intuitive than the old RIDE-9, and it’s nice that the Altitude can also adjust for 27.5” or 29” rear wheels. It’s obvious that Rocky Mountain put a lot of thought into smaller details with the Altitude, things like guided internal cable routing that can be set up with the rear brake on either side will be appreciated by folks who run their brakes moto style.

I mentioned this briefly in my Norco Sight review , but I think we’re starting to see a divide between brands that include all the little details and features on their frames - integrated fenders, in-frame storage, headset and flip chip adjustability - and those who don’t. I’m fully in the “give me all the niceties” camp, and the new Altitude satisfies that desire. It would be great to see more of those details make their way to the alloy frame though.

The Altitude sports SRAM’s UDH for Transmission compatibility, along with a threaded bottom bracket, a rarity for Rocky. It also uses a 30.9 mm seat tube. Rocky says that decision allows them to save weight. I’ve said my piece on seat post diameters, so just give that a read for my thoughts.

Jack agrees with my take, and has this to say: “I’d love to see more 34.9mm frames to allow dropper manufacturers to beef up their stanchions to hold off the inevitable bushing wear - at least some companies are doing that now. For an XL lad, good luck with a 30.9mm by 240mm post. Might as well strap a saddle to a plastic lightsaber and call it a day.”

I wouldn’t go quite that far – 30.9 mm posts are completely adequate – but I’d always prefer having the option to shim down.

Geometry and Adjustability

As I mentioned in that intro piece, none of the geo numbers on the new Altitude are surprising or “out there.” Add the headset and RIDE-4 adjustability to the mix, and it was fairly easy to get the bike to a place that worked well for me. I started with the headset in the “neutral” (480 mm reach) position, and then later bumped it up to the +5 mm position and left it there. I really like these swappable headsets as a solution to sizing Goldilocks situations, and the Altitude reinforced that.

I started with the RIDE-4 in the neutral position and liked the bike there, but eventually swapped it to the slackest position. It’s not a wild difference, but I did like the slightly more stable feel at higher speeds and in steeper terrain. My guess is that most folks will find a position they prefer pretty quickly and stick with it.

Spec Choices

The C70 build is an interesting mix of really smart spec choices, along with some more questionable ones. First the highlights: I quite like Shimano’s XT brakes and drivetrain, and the same goes for the RockShox Zeb Select+ up front. I also love that Rocky specs the Altitude with nice tires - the MaxxGrip EXO+ Assegai up front, and the MaxxTerra DoubleDown DHRII in the rear are exactly what I’d end up purchasing for a bike like this. And it’s very cool that they come with CushCore Trail inserts as well.

However there were a few spec choices that were frustrating. The first became apparent as soon as I took my first pedal stroke: the 18 tooth star ratchet in the DT Swiss 370 rear hub is very slow to engage. I’m no engagement princess, but this hub was a stark reminder that I prefer slightly higher engagement hubs. Jack agreed: “The new DT 370 at least has a star ratchet, which was nice, but upgrading from such a low engagement hub is one of those changes that I found is really hard to ever revert to. Granted, the DT 350 hub I ran with my own 27.5” wheel was only 36 tooth, but a 100% increase is pretty damn noticeable.”

We would both upgrade that ratchet immediately.

The second challenge we ran into was with the dropper post. It doesn’t feel like it should be controversial to argue that size large bikes should come stock with 200+ mm droppers, but here we are. The Altitude comes with a 175 mm post. And its seat tube is quite tall. Here’s Jack’s take: “When I swapped out the stock dropper for my OneUp, I was only able to get 190 mm out of it, slammed to the collar. It was definitely out of my way but I’m used to at least 210 mm. My height (5’11”) puts me squarely in the middle of their size chart for a large and I’d expect to be able to fit a 200 mm post.”

Where does the Rocky Mountain Altitude shine?

Let’s start with a list of keywords: quick, taut, tight, snappy, aggressive, game-on, intense, racy, active. I rode the Altitude back to back with the new Privateer 161, and while on paper they share a lot of similarities in geometry, travel, and intention, they feel wildly different on the trail. The Altitude wants, maybe even needs to go fast. It wants you to be a driver, not a passenger. The harder you push it the better it feels. On familiar trails I found myself missing braking points and overcooking corners. This bike carries a lot of speed, very easily.

It feels like very little of the energy of your inputs is wasted. It’s super responsive. This feels like a race bike more explicitly than a lot of other, similar bikes I’ve spent time on. It’s less supple and forgiving, and more powerful and demanding. If my job was to memorize tracks, and then go down them as quickly as possible, this bike would make a lot of sense.

It also pedals fairly well (I never felt a need to reach for that lockout), and is fairly light given its tire and insert spec. That, combined with its downhill personality, makes for a ride that feels performance-driven, up and down. This isn’t a couch, it’s a racecar.

Jack and I made it a point not to discuss the Altitude until we’d both gotten to know it well, and funnily enough, we converged on the same metaphor independently. Lots of 160 mm enduro bikes are like all-mountain skis – pretty versatile, and pretty forgiving to a wide variety of riding styles. The Altitude feels like a GS ski in comparison, with a lot of pent-up energy to exploit. It wants to be on edge.

Here’s Jack’s take: “I found myself really trusting it. The high ride height gave confidence in bumps and chatter yet still managed to find ample grip along the way. In bigger holes and compressions where I’ve grown accustomed to bracing for impact, the Altitude takes it as an opportunity to twist its throttle.”

He also experimented with running a smaller rear wheel. “I swapped out the big rear wheel for a 27.5” and made use of the 29/MX flip chip. It really helped me move it around in the tighter stuff with not much sacrifice to straight line speed. A compromise I was happy to make. Past that, jumping became more natural and I was thankful for the extra rear end clearance.”

Where does the Rocky Mountain Altitude make some compromises?

The flipside of that on less familiar trails, or on days where I was feeling less on top of my riding, was that the Altitude could be a bit of a handful. It wants to go fast and if you’re not ready to direct that energy, it’s easy to end up off line in the cabbage. This isn’t a terribly forgiving bike. Compared to the Privateer 161, Cannondale Jekyll , or Transition Spire/Patrol, I felt less comfortable on unfamiliar trails and challenging features. And that sort of makes sense – the Slayer exists for those “getting away with it” rides.

Here’s Jack’s perspective: “There were multiple instances where I had a hard time muscling the bike back on line after a compression. If it threw me inside of the corner, I could square it off to dump speed. Getting bucked outside, however, made me throw in the towel a couple times. At least I was able to admire the local vegetation that I got up close and personal with. All that said, I really look forward to learning to manage that extra speed given enough time on the bike.”

The more you want to race bikes (or spend your casual rides pretending you’re racing) the more sense the Altitude makes.

Inside the LC2R system

Two notes about this new suspension system:

First, like many shorter-linked suspension systems, take the time to check Rocky’s suspension setup guide. Both Jack and I eyeballed 30% sags for our first rides, and had negative results in opposite directions. Here’s Jack’s experience: “I’m used to running less sag to prevent bottom out and keep the dynamic sag/ride height higher. I needed to drop 10-15 PSI from my initial parking lot setup to get it to feel like it had more than 100 mm of travel.”

I made the opposite mistake: my “pump it up to 30% sag and then hustle to meet friends for a ride” left me short about 30 PSI from Rocky’s recommendation. Set up like this, the bike was absurdly wallowy, and felt vague and frustrating. Read the instructions kids! They’re there for a reason!

Second: there’s a service bulletin out to check the threadlock and grease on the main pivot of the LC2R system. Please, do this immediately. It’s impossible to tighten the main pivot out on the trail, and riding with a loose main pivot is a great way to screw up some large and expensive bearings.

I followed along as my local Rocky rep walked me through the process. It requires a special tool that Rocky Mountain ships with every bike, along with a bottom bracket socket – the rear triangle interferes in such a way that traditional bb wrenches don’t quite work.

Once you’ve pulled the cranks, you just need to pull the drive side BB cup. Then you can access the special interface behind it. Pull the massive pivot axle the BB is housed in (the non-drive side slots into the frame, so no tools are needed back there), remove the shock bolt, remove the rear triangle, and out slides the massive link. It uses some two Enduro bearings to pivot around the BB, and Rocky is quick to point out that all the pressing surfaces on this link are flat to make swaps easier. I'd recommend upgrading to the "Max" version of those bearings when you do replace them.

Grease it all up, torque to spec, and check before every ride. On many bikes you can tighten the main pivot with a multi-tool. This is not one of those bikes.

A Mysterious Noise

Jack and I rode the same test bike, and then he purchased a C50 build. On both frames we both noticed a persistent, annoying rattle. It sounds bad. According to Jack: “I must have stopped ten times to check if something was loose. I was so worried that something was unthreading and was about to self-destruct. I think it’s the dropper? After some testing, I'm pretty sure the post is rattling within the frame and I repeated it with three different post models.”

I fully agree. I initially thought somebody was playing a prank on us and had stashed a ball bearing somewhere in the frame. I hope we had a two-off experience, because it’s quite a distracting noise. My best guess is that either the dropper head is rattling within the post, or the full post itself is rattling against the inside of the seat tube, somewhere below the clamping zone. Either way, that noise is amplified by the carbon downtube and sounds pretty bad.

In Conclusion

The new Altitude might just be the most explicitly “racy” feeling bike I’ve ridden in a while. It wants to go fast. When that sort of riding is on the menu it delivers a snappy, efficient, taut ride. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’re in luck, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s got a full-featured, very adjustable frame as well.