TESLA FOR THE
Rocky Mountain’s new Powerplay gets 720Wh battery and Ludicrous mode
When Rocky Mountain launched the Altitude Powerplay back in 2017, it was way ahead of the curve. Way ahead of the torque curve with a whopping 108Nm, way ahead of the power curve with 700W, and way ahead of the battery pack with a 632Wh capacity. It also mirrored the geometry of a conventional bike more closely than any other at the time, giving the handling a dynamic edge that other brands couldn’t match. OK, reliability was not its strong point, but when it worked it was a dream to ride, and in terms of power, range and handling, it took three years for the market to catch up.
Now there are two new versions of the Powerplay, and to help restore Rocky Mountain’s competitive advantage they get a smaller, lighter and more reliable Dyname
4.0 drive system along with some slick new features. For hardcore enduro terrain and bike-park blasting there’s the 160mm-travel
Altitude Powerplay enduro bike and for trail multi-tasking there’s the 140mm-travel Instinct Powerplay, both rocking 29in wheels.
Like the first-generation Powerplay bikes and their Dyname 3.0 motor, motorised assistance comes from a drive sprocket fitted above the chainring. Unlike most systems that drive the crank, imagine the idler pulley on a high-pivot bike attached to a motor and you’ll get the idea. This means Rocky Mountain can stick with a conventional crank and bottom bracket, and keep the chainstays nice and short for snappy cornering, without having to resort to a mullet set-up.
In fact, both the Altitude and Instinct Powerplay models both take advantage of this unusual layout to move to a mid-high pivot suspension configuration, where the main pivot sits a few centimetres above the chainring.
This gives them a rearward axle path for the first half of the travel, which should make them less inhibited by square-edge bumps.
No bike would be complete without some kind of geometry adjustment in 2022, and Rocky Mountain’s Instinct and Altitude Powerplay models both get the brand’s long-standing Ride-4 geometry chip with four different configurations at your disposal. And it supplements this with a chainstay chip that lets you alter the rear centre length by 10mm.
While we’re on the subject, the sizing and geometry has been brought up to date, with reach measurements now around 480mm on a