1996 Blizzard vs 30th Anniversary

[Neil G]

It is but I bet it's a much better riding bike than the original through technical stuff.

Both great though and it's good to see RM keeping it real with the Blizzard and continuing to manufacture it after all this time. Just checked the RM site and they have another Blizzard frame out called the LT which looks a bit more burly (gussets at headtube)...maybe it can take longer forks or something.

 

[Anonymous]

I'll take the 96'.
In 96 they were designed, tested, made, and assemblied in Richmond, British Columbia. 20 minutes from the north shoe mountains.
In 2011 they are mass produced asian frames assemblied as a bike in Quebec! The other side of Canada.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Blizzard

To be fair, the original is far from original. I did like the fact that high end RMs shipped with Raceface cranks back in the early 90s.

Race Face was developed by Rocky Mountain. Race Face came in and Syncros went out.

 

[Neil G]

I'll take the 96'.
In 96 they were designed, tested, made, and assemblied in Richmond, British Columbia. 20 minutes from the north shoe mountains.
In 2011 they are mass produced asian frames assemblied as a bike in Quebec! The other side of Canada.

Sorry but you can't rubbish a Columbus made frame costing £800 just because it's not made in Richmond. Let's face it, 95% of bike companies have changed production due to the market, I think RM have done a good thing here keeping it going..they could have quite easily canned it and gone 100% hydroformed and plastic (carbon).

 

[Anonymous]

I'll take the 96'.
In 96 they were designed, tested, made, and assemblied in Richmond, British Columbia. 20 minutes from the north shoe mountains.
In 2011 they are mass produced asian frames assemblied as a bike in Quebec! The other side of Canada.

Sorry but you can't rubbish a Columbus made frame costing £800 just because it's not made in Richmond. Let's face it, 95% of bike companies have changed production due to the market, I think RM have done a good thing here keeping it going..they could have quite easily canned it and gone 100% hydroformed and plastic (carbon).

I'm not going to hijack this thread. This is comparing old RM and new RM.
RM has many unhappy ex-employees and this is what I was told.
A few years ago RM was sold to a larger company. RM became a division of a larger bike company. The other bike divisions of that company has since stop production. RM moved because they had large empty facility in Quecbec. The result was the remaining hard tail frame production stoped. Canadian suspension frame production was limited to high end frames with carbon. Sadly all the people behind those inovations, designs and constructions are gone. RM has changed and well remain a major brand.
Ask yourslef why do you like retro RM bikes. Would you reather own retro Rocky Mountain (with the heritage) or retro KHS (nothing bad about KHS, just a example of what I think RM is becoming).
The 20 minutes from the north shore means they can test their bikes right away and make changes that afternoon. Quecbec is about about a 6 hour flight east of the rocky mountains.

 

[Neil G]

Fair enough, that's what I said about production changing to suit the market!

I had a 1990 Summit e-stay that I really wish I still had (got stolen) and it was a really rare bike from the era when it was local/grass roots. Fast forward 20 years and I want a hardtail that has some meaning to me....I had to 'replace' the Summit with a Blizzard as it still has that feel to it even if it may be made somewhere else! The graphics always look great and when combined with Race Face, Blackspire or Syncros stuff the whole thing hangs together nicely.

I suppose what I am trying to say is certain brands become favourites..after my Summit I've always had a soft spot for RM!

 

[Anthony]

Sadly all the people behind those inovations, designs and constructions are gone. RM has changed and well remain a major brand.
Ask yourslef why do you like retro RM bikes. Would you reather own retro Rocky Mountain (with the heritage) or retro KHS (nothing bad about KHS, just a example of what I think RM is becoming).
The 20 minutes from the north shore means they can test their bikes right away and make changes that afternoon. Quecbec is about about a 6 hour flight east of the rocky mountains.

I'm glad to say that this is wrong. It's true that almost all the frames are now made in Taiwan, and that the bikes are painted and assembled in Quebec, but design and development, including prototype frame building and prototype CNC work, is still done in Vancouver, 20 minutes from the north shore. The designers still test the prototypes on the north shore, same as ever.

If you're interested in Rocky Mountain, keep in touch with the RM forum on mtbr. Among others, Rockyuphill who lives in Delta BC, will keep you up to date with new bike developments that he sees from RM.

 

[suburbanreuben]

I've always found RM's , for a given frame size and standover, too short in the top tube for my liking - they feel like they should have an extra 25mm - 35mm of TT length.
I've tried to get on with them, but on both occasions ('93 and '06 Blizzards) had to come to the conclusion that I just don't gel with them.

A shame, because they are very good-looking bikes.

Strange- My '02 Bliz has the longest TT of all my bikes... :?

 

[sunchaser]

Higher at the front, lower at the back, probably about the same in the middle where the standover's measured

The 2011 is quite short across the board. Pretty steep, too. Be interesting to see a pic of a bigger frame size.

Sorry to revive such an old thread but, I've been searching the site for project inspiration & found this...

I agree with some of the comments & that for me the '96 is a more attractive bike.

Just for comparison here's my 2005 25th anniversary in 18.5"

Sorry about the poor photo & that it's covered in mud

 

[mikesnowdon]

...& that it's covered in mud...

...and so it should be!