You are looking at a 1998 Rocky Mountain Pipeline, the original Frorider bike. For me, it's a legendary bike in Rocky's history.
In the mid 90's, riders and bike companies finally accepted that suspension was good. And they soon realized that what would be even better, is more suspension. The 100mm travel Marzocchi Z.1 debuted in 1998, and it was a revelation.
Today, 100mm is a joke, but in 1996, 63mm was what the Rock Shox Judy XC offered. And the Judy DH was 80mm. To get four inches of travel from the Bomber, and to get it from a open oil bath, coil spring fork, it was heaven.
All at once, a bunch of companies offered these 'long-travel' bikes; the K2 Beast and Animal, the Specialized FSR Extreme, the Cannondale Super-V Freeride. And it was Cannondale that really went all-in on this trend, copy-righting the term 'freeride.'
Anyone coming from a skiing background thought this was BS. How can you copy-right that? May as well copyright 'downhill' or 'cross-country.' Looking back, you have to wonder how they beat Specialized to it. I suppose they copyrighted 'extreme,' or tried anyway.
Today, 100mm is a joke, but in 1996, 63mm was what the Rock Shox Judy XC offered. And the Judy DH was 80mm. To get four inches of travel from the Bomber, and to get it from a open oil bath, coil spring fork, it was heaven.
All at once, a bunch of companies offered these 'long-travel' bikes; the K2 Beast and Animal, the Specialized FSR Extreme, the Cannondale Super-V Freeride. And it was Cannondale that really went all-in on this trend, copy-righting the term 'freeride.'
Anyone coming from a skiing background thought this was BS. How can you copy-right that? May as well copyright 'downhill' or 'cross-country.' Looking back, you have to wonder how they beat Specialized to it. I suppose they copyrighted 'extreme,' or tried anyway.
This didn't seem to bother Rocky Mountain. They called their team the Froriders and proceeded to create a team of legendary riders.
Fun fact; if you know about the froriders, you surely know about the Hall of Fame riders Brett Tippie, Richie Schley, and Wade Simmons, but you may not know about the two women on the team, Daamiann Skelton and Carys Evans. As you can see above, there were two versions of the famous magazine ad. And they weren't there for show, Tippie once said that 'Carless Carys' was years ahead of her time.
Fun fact; if you know about the froriders, you surely know about the Hall of Fame riders Brett Tippie, Richie Schley, and Wade Simmons, but you may not know about the two women on the team, Daamiann Skelton and Carys Evans. As you can see above, there were two versions of the famous magazine ad. And they weren't there for show, Tippie once said that 'Carless Carys' was years ahead of her time.
Anyway, back to the bike already.
I decided to switch it up and make a sort of Pipeline Pro of it. Rocky didn't sell frames with different levels of parts, and the Pipeline came with a high-LX level. I had some XT shifter pods and brakes though, and they look really good here.
It's the RaceFace cranks that really make it work though. I was never a big fan of the design on the LX cranks it came with. Plus finding replacement rings for those is especially hard.
That seat has got to go - it's so ugly.
This is now my only full suspension bike, which is fine since I don't ride anything that requires full suspension. I find it pretty hard to stop looking at it - one of my faves for sure.
I decided to switch it up and make a sort of Pipeline Pro of it. Rocky didn't sell frames with different levels of parts, and the Pipeline came with a high-LX level. I had some XT shifter pods and brakes though, and they look really good here.
It's the RaceFace cranks that really make it work though. I was never a big fan of the design on the LX cranks it came with. Plus finding replacement rings for those is especially hard.
That seat has got to go - it's so ugly.
This is now my only full suspension bike, which is fine since I don't ride anything that requires full suspension. I find it pretty hard to stop looking at it - one of my faves for sure.
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