1997 Rocky Mountain Altitude T.O. --- NEW PICS Feb 11

[TheJackel2013]

I was always ambivalent about Altitudes, mainly because the colour scheme reminded me of McDonald's. Even though I'm a die hard Rocky fan, I was still on the fence about buying an Altitude when I saw one for sale a couple of years ago. Seller was forthright and described the condition as well used with a dent in the top tube. Price was decent and I thought why not? I could always resell if I can't get the image of a Big Mac out of my mind. Or maybe it's the image of Ronald McDonald riding my bike. Clowns are scary :twisted: :shock: :shock:

When it arrived, it was in much better shape than I was led to believe. Most of the scratches and marks were very minor and polished out. The dent was there, but pretty minor and caused by brake levers at full lock. After sitting in my storage for 2 years, I came across a battered XC Pro rear derailleur at my LBS and was inspired to start a Suntour build. I had XC Pro MD on my 1992 S-Works steel and I always remembered it to be markedly superior to what Shimano had out at the time in their XT stuff. I never owned a XTR bike so I couldn't compare. I rode the XC Pro hard and regularly for 20 years and then sold the bike. The Suntour bearings were still buttery smooth with maybe 1 rebuild in those 20 years.

More pics to come as I track down as much NOS or Mint XC Pro stuff for the build.

 

[Blizz]

Re: 1997 Rocky Mountain Altitude T.O.

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
I think it's one of the best paint jobs of all the vintage Rockies! The transparent red powder coat is cool, it allows you to see the detail of the welds and tubing.

 

[mojo ti]

Re:

I remember this bike in a magazine with Judy, XTR M950 and Race Face components. Crazy !!! :facepalm:

 

[Woodyuk]

Re:

Color looks good on the frame looking forward to see how this build turns out and some more photos....
Just about to start a RM Vertex 1995 build love the RM red /yellow color scheme

 

[Captain Canada]

Re: 1997 Rocky Mountain Altitude T.O.

Real nice! I like the 97iger Model because it have the nice "new" Ritchey Dropouts!

Ride on!

Simon

 

[TheJackel2013]

Re: 1997 Rocky Mountain Altitude T.O.

The Ritchey dropouts are indeed very nice.

Assembling the cockpit. Found some NOS XC Pro 7/8 shifters, and some 'Near NOS' (forum joke) XC Pro brake levers. Also have some NOS Suntour Brake Cables with the rare 5/8mm ferrules. Ritchey Bar might as well be NOS, never seen one with the Logos 100% intact.

 

[TheJackel2013]

Re: 1997 Rocky Mountain Altitude T.O.

Some light sanding and touch up paint of the rear mech and she looks much better

 

[TheJackel2013]

Re: 1997 Rocky Mountain Altitude T.O.

The old stickers on top of the XC Pro shifters always peeled off, but it looks like the set I bought had the last 'bubble dome' stickers. Nice touch. Maybe they'll be more durable




Suntour only made model of the top pull front derailleur and it doesn't look as nice as the rest of the XC Pro stuff, and the return spring is REALLY stiff with no adjustment.




Some XC Pro cantilevers. So easy to set up and adjust. Trying on repainted Tange Switchblade fork legs in a Mag 21 crown. But I will likely remove these for a set of Syncro Powerlites which are incoming

 

[k-rod]

yummy

 

[TheJackel2013]

Another NOS score on the way. I had this back in the day and wore it until it stank and was ripped up by repeated crashes