1993 Rocky Mountain Altitude

[iveto1983]

I've had this bike for about 4 years. I bought the frame off eBay and it's slowly evolved into the bike you see in the pictures. It's never going to be catalog spec because I prefer rigid forks. I know that Tange Struts aren't held in particularly high regard, but they look good and ride well for me. I also like the aesthetics of the Altitude with black forks, stem and seatpost.

However, I've now got myself a dilemma. I bought some titanium forks last week for my Kona Hot, but they're too short at 395mm. They're ideal for this, except they're threadless. That means I need to change the stem. No problem, I have a nice Raceface ti stem. But I like to match the stem and seatpost. I have a Syncros ti post on the Kona that'd be perfect, but then I need to swap the ti stem on the Kona to match, or pony up for another ti seatpost. I'm starting to regret buying the forks because I'd finally decided this bike was finished. Ditto for the Hot.
Damn it! I might have to buy another frame to use these forks on...

 

[troje]

Love your bike. Is that a threaded Chris King headset you're using now? I would keep the current Struts. I disagree with you that this fork is not in high regards, personally I really like the original Struts. They are a bit heavy but give razor sharp handling in return. And the segmented crown looks great too. Personally, I would make that nice ti fork the starting point for another project. In '93 I believe rocky was using threaded forks so threadless with Ahead would not make it a more representative bike for that year. And find some Syncros stickers for on the stem. Can you use those V brake levers for canti brakes?

Nice cat too!

[edit]
Just noticed that the '93 Altitude was indeed equipped with Aheadset, contrary to what I thought.

 

[ibbz]

lovely bike, classy lines!

 

[iveto1983]

Thanks for the kind words, that's what I wanted to hear. Another project starts!

According to the catalog, the Altitude and Ti-Bolt were threadless in 93. The headset is a threaded King. The xtr levers are actually m900 with the pods cut off and carbon blades.

Everyone loves my cat! My understanding girlfriend let me name him Lloyd after one of my bikes, a Dave Lloyd Cats Wiskas.

 

[RockiMtn]

keep the Altitude as is. the struts are nothing i would scoff at. i just traded the tange struts i had, hopefully won't regret that decision. that fork was stocked on the 92 RM Blizzard, which is my fav year, that and the 96. find another project, pref ti to use the stem and fork on.

only thing i'd consider changing up would be XTR m900 STI instead of the XT levers and thumbs considering your brakes and mechs are XTR.

 

[cyclotoine]

I've got a nice 140mm Cattlehead 15D rise NOS... it could solve you stem colour problem.

 

[semi-school]

Oh yeah. I have to agree with the XTR rapidfire combo suggestion unless you have a real thing for thumbies. To taste for me would include Conti's and a Mag-21, but otherwise, I'm ready to take it for a ride!

Really, though, it's so awesome that even a cynical cat has to check it out. Stamp of approval, that. Congratulations.

 

[RockiMtn]

i just noticed that the brake levers say XTR on them, what are those???

 

[iveto1983]

They're m900 sti with the pods cut off and carbon fibre lever blades. I bought them from shutter last year. He also provided me with the headset and stem.
I have some complete m900 sti that I could've used, but I wanted to use thumbies on this.

cyclotoine, thanks for the offer. I'd forgotten that I already have a black Syncros ahead stem in my spares. It's an option to think about.

 

[shutter]

They're m900 sti with the pods cut off and carbon fibre lever blades. I bought them from shutter last year. He also provided me with the headset and stem.
I have some complete m900 sti that I could've used, but I wanted to use thumbies on this.

cyclotoine, thanks for the offer. I'd forgotten that I already have a black Syncros ahead stem in my spares. It's an option to think about.

Lookin sweet! I'm glad you were able to put the carbon blade levers to use! Whoever made them spent a LONG time on them becasue they have all the little metal parts integrated into them =)

I Really like the Tange Struts fork! I actually traded RockiMtn for his (but he got a pretty sweet fork in return ) I have on on my 94' blizzard, another on my 92' blizzard (it's in the mail...).

That Ti fork looks awesome! What make is it? I would save it for a Ti frame... I've been looking for a cool Titanium fork for my KONA Hei Hei Ti frame but unable to find one yet...

I just find a cool race face Ti stem for it thought (Thanks!!)