Advice re 2004 Rocky Mountain Hammer respray

[JimC]

Hello all,

Please excuse me my first post being a call for help, but I'm in the process of overhauling my 2004 Hammer and could really do with some advice from the masses here.

After running it as a SS for a few years it has languished in my shed for a couple more, but an imminent race has seen me dust it off for a rebuild. I'll be upgrading a few components, such as White Industries cranks vice the original Race Face, and I'm switching to a 1x drivetrain leaving me the option of an easy reversion to SS if I wish.

The difficult thing I'm facing here is, predictably, what to do with respect to the finish. The blue is nice, but a change would also be good. I love the candy apple red I've seen on a few of these too, but can't seem to find any details of years, codes, etc. Having said that, I also like the white/grey of similar years' Blizzards.

I'm thinking of staying true to the bike's heritage and going with a factory colour of some kind, but as I'm modding the frame slightly I'm pretty much free now to do whatever takes my fancy. And as you can see from the photo (apologies, it was in a poor state at the time - taken simply for my records), the "Hammer" and Reynolds 725 decals, along with the obligatory maple leaves are gone due to some repair work done a while ago. I can have any and all of that replaced by the paint shop that has the bike, but again I don't know what to do. Maybe leave it as just the downtube and headbadge?

Do you guys have any thoughts on the matter? I don't feel the need to do a full restoration, but nor do I want to stray too far.

Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[scottyp]

Re:

My Hammer of the same vintage is a lovely gloss black with gold RM decals - looks nice and subtle but classy.

I'll try and dig out some pics later

 

[JimC]

So, after doing a little more research on here and other sites about the Hammer model compared with others, I get the feeling that there is nothing to be gained by attempting to keep things original, so the full spectrum is on offer.

I'm mindful that colours are VERY subjective, but have read most of the related threads anyway just for the hell of it. However, I'm not finding that of much use except as a way to pass the time.

Anyway, I had come into this process thinking a nice red would be cool, but the more I think about it the more I suspect a subtler colour would be nice. My wife, who is damn good with design and colours, is steering me towards gunmetal grey. I showed her a photo of RockiMtn's beautiful Thunderbolt, and she loved it. And I'm now leaning that way myself. And I'm probably going to forego all decals with the exception of the downtube and headbadge.

What do you guys think?

 

[coomber]

I think the blue looks great and the condition is also good so I would put my pennies towards upgrading those forks.

 

[JimC]

Cheers coomber. I like the blue too, but the frame was in need of some work and a respray was definitely in order anyway. I guess I could just keep it the same (or as close as possible), but I just went in to this with the thought that a change might be as good as a holiday.

I've never even considered new forks other than going back to rigid. This is my first and only pair of suspension forks. All my previous rides have been fully rigid. And I kind of miss it. What would you consider a worthwhile upgrade?

 

[scottyp]

Re:

sorry for the delay - here's mine in black, converted to commuter duties.
wrapped some of the tubes in carbon car vinyl to protect it from the ravages of works bike compound:

 

[JimC]

Very nice. Cheers DD. How do you find those forks compared with the Marzocchis? Coomber suggested above that I could do better but I'd be running blind in the suspension world and something simple and light like yours might just do the trick.

 

[scottyp]

Re:

They're pretty good to be honest - I've done a light off road jaunt with them and the carbon an steel frame absorbs quite a lot of trail buzz and bump.

With some fat tyres it would be really nimble over rocks - but for a hard hitting of road course I would probably look at something like rock shox reba's or equivalent fox shocks

 

[coomber]

Bombers are great fit and forget forks but are quite heavy.

Not sure what travel they have but expect it's 100mm? So you could check the axle crown and if it's not too long, I would pop some Rock Shox Reba's on as they are about as good as forks get and would be a lot lighter.

Or rigid is good.

 

[JimC]

Cheers guys. Yeah coomber, 105mm based on Bikepedia. I might start looking into this while I'm on a roll.