Originally Posted by
clubman
Lucky man! Always coveted the Stratos, alum alloy bikes were starting to win races.
Everything RM made in those heady days was class, from Fusion to Blizzard.
I have a Blizzard (2001) which I would consider to be one of the best hardtails ever made and it is a wonderful bike on singletrack but the Stratos is freaking amazing... it reminds me of the rigid Al Treks from this era and like those it just begs to be pushed harder and harder and gives back everything you put into it and is much stiffer than the Reynolds framed Blizzard which suits it's purposes well.
Rocky Mountain had better geometry and the Stratos handles like it is on rails, climbs like a goat on speed, is stupidly quick off the line... and very fast.
I might just have to keep this bike around for a little while... had initially thought I would service it and then find it a new home but it can keep the Blizzard company for a while.
Doing some further checking and the Stratos appears to be a '91 and should have a DX short cage instead of the XT short cage... I happened to buy a mint one of these at a gear swap some time back so will install that to unify the parts group.