#Rocky mountain power play full

While climbing, the kinematics feel similar to Rocky Mountain’s other bikes. I haven’t found Ludicrous mode to be practical for most situations, but it’s there and fun if you’re trying to blast up a wide open fire road or something like that. For a bike of this weight (54.6lb, size M), Eco doesn’t do a whole lot if you’re trying to pedal with reasonable power. I’ve spent most of my time bouncing between the middle Trail, and Trail+ modes.

Again, there are four modes: Eco, Trail, Trail+, and Ludicrous mode. Otherwise, powering the bike on and selecting the mode is simple. The charger can be a little tricky to line up in the charge port on the motor.

#Rocky mountain power play full

After a full charge, the Altitude Powerplay was ready to rock.Įverything in the motor and battery department feels intuitive to use. The initial setup held no major surprises. Fortunately, we had a delayed winter in Colorado and I managed to get some lengthy, late-season rides on the e-bike. I received the Altitude Powerplay just ahead of the launch near the end of October. The reach is 455mm, the standover height is 835mm, and the wheelbase is 1,233mm. Those measurements are quite short for an ebike. On our medium test model in the neutral geometry position, the head tube angle is 64°, the seat tube angle is 76°, and the chainstays measure 437mm in the short position. The geometry has of course been updated too. Speaking of power, there are four modes: Eco, Trail, Trail+, and Ludicrous. The motor is also designed around a variable power curve meant to ease more challenging starts and prevent the bike from lurching out with too much power. The Dyname reads the torque input that’s applied to the chain and removes unwanted lag time for a more natural power response. By removing the slider, having lower RPM’s and including a higher pivot we have achieved all of our goals to showcase the efficiency of the Dyname 4.0 system and the quality ride characteristics that Rocky Mountain has always been known for.” On other designs the built-in crank/BB and strain gauge/torque sensor are paired with a planetary gear and belt drive or some combination of that to reduce the higher RPM to human levels.

With a 48-volt motor we operate the RPMs at a lower speed and the reduction of that initial RPM happens via an internal chain and secondarily the normal cranks and gears, fairly simple. Rocky Mountain gave us a few more details on how all the components of the motor work together: “On a more detailed look inside the motor we can see that our design with it’s low RPM and serviceable bottom bracket and cranks are paired with a unique torque sensor. We are operating at about 1/3 of the internal RPM’s as most of the other systems, which comes with a host of benefits including less noise, less wear and tear, and less heat generated.” The changes are broken into a few areas: geometry, the motor, and suspension kinematics.Ībout the motor, Rocky Mountain told us “There is a relationship between, which gets down to some of the unique properties of our Dyname motor system, but first off the RPM’s have not changed from the original Dyname system to the Dyname 3.0 and including the 4.0 version. The changes are pretty similar between the two bikes, but we’ll focus more on the Altitude since that’s what I’ve been riding. Rocky Mountain debuted the second-generation Instincts and Altitude Powerplays at the same time. With the broad downtube and a Fox 38 fork up front, it’s clear that the Altitude Powerplay is a powerful e-bike ready for anything. Visibly, the Dyname motor is quite distinct on the e-bike as sort of a blocky space sitting around and between the bottom bracket, seat tube, and down tube. Rocky Mountain has used their Dyname electric drive system since the first Powerplays which helped keep the chainstays short and the weight slung low for ride characteristics that were closer to a non-motorized mountain bike. As with any mountain bike, time and trends change, and both bikes were due for updates. As demand grew, Rocky Mountain brought the Powerplay to North America and eventually brought out the Instinct Powerplay. Rocky Mountain stepped onto the e-bike scene in 2017 with the first Altitude Powerplay, though initially, it was only available in Europe.