We turned 30 last year and it feels great. No middle-age anxiety, just excitement about reaching our glory years. We’re older, we’re wiser, and we’ve never made better bikes than right now. Not bad for a little bike company born in the basement of a Vancouver BC bike shop, eh?

Since we started way back then, Rocky Mountain has developed a reputation for quality and innovation. We’re proud of our work and our customers are proud to own the bikes we make.

In 1981, employees at that Vancouver bike shop where Rocky Mountain was born realized there was a huge demand for high quality mountain bikes. They began importing mountain bike frames from California to sell to their customers. To meet the exploding demand, they formed Rocky Mountain Bicycles and began importing and manufacturing frames to their exact specifications. The early years of Rocky Mountain served as an incubator for the west coast mountain bike industry, with a handful of employees branching off to start several internationally successful bike companies.

We’ve come a long way since our modest beginning, but our core values have never changed. These values are the reason Rocky Mountain bikes are as sought after today as they were in 1981.

The Best Athletes in the Harshest Conditions.

At Rocky Mountain we ride and test our bikes in the harshest conditions imaginable. It is these conditions that have spawned the bicycles in our line up. British Columbia has the most diverse riding conditions in the world. In four hours one can go from the temperate rain forest of the coast, crossing huge mountains and glacial fed rivers to the interior desert. The riding possibilities here are endless; long climbs, fast fire road descents, twisty singletrack, technical rock and root sections, log rides and big drops. The terrain is demanding at the best of times, mind boggling and truly scary at the worst. It is the desire to ride this terrain that has fuelled our passion to build bikes. It is this terrain that has inspired our innovation, to create and build the best product possible.

In addition to demanding terrain, we work with the most demanding athletes to develop our bikes. There is a rich tradition of world-class riders who have ridden Rocky Mountain bikes to victory and in the case of our freeriders, to our amazement.

Since the early 1990’s we have been at the forefront of cross-country racing with pioneer riders like Alison Sydor, Andreas Hestler, Chrissy Redden, and Bruce Spicer. Most recently, Rocky Mountain has won XC World Cups by both Geoff Kabush and 2004 Olympic silver medalist Marie-Helene Premont. Rocky Mountain has dominated mountain bike stage racing for the past decade with riders such as Lesley Tomlinson, Andreas Hestler, Alison Sydor, Pia Sundstedt, Carsten Bresser and Karl Platt. We’ve won every major stage race in the world.

In 2010, Sabrina Jonnier is poised to capture her second World Cup overall title in two years, having piloted her Flatline WC to eight World Cup wins. Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain was the only World Cup team to win both XC and DH World Cups in the last two years.

Our athletes were the first true freeriders. Our legendary Frorider team of Wade Simmons, Richie Schley, and Brett Tippie changed the sport forever with their new and mind blowing riding style. We continue to push the limits of gravity riding with new talent, but remain extremely fortunate to have icons like Wade and Brett riding and helping us develop our bikes.

From pioneering the sport to winning races, Rocky Mountain Bicycles has a lot to celebrate from the past 30 years. Most important to us are not the awards or accolades, however, but the thousands of happy riders that we’ve created over the years.