If I wanted to goof around and have a ton of fun on every side hit, I’d take the Heckler. I’m currently working on a Heckler vs Repeater vs Altitude PP video as we speak. It wouldn’t be my first pick for slow-speed tech trails, but I’d take it all day for descents like Grafton DH. It feels very at home in the scary stuff. The Altitude PP craves steep and rugged terrain. Sure, there’s a lot of weight and suspension to overcome, but the short chainstays helped get that front wheel off the ground for bunnyhops, jumps, and manuals. The short ones on this bike kept it lively and relatively easy to get off the ground. Most ebikes have significantly longer chainstays. When the bike is big and heavy, a dynamic suspension tune goes a long way in counteracting that heavy bike.īecause of how the Dyname drive incorporates into the frame, the chainstay length on the Altitude PP is in the normal MTB range. Rather than it soaking up every bump and making it impossible for you to be in control. Knowing where the bike is on the trail helps keep it lively and active. The suspension tune allows you to feel bumps in the trail - not in a bad way. It wasn’t squirrely or harsh, but it wasn’t a waterbed on wheels. I was pretty surprised at how much trail I could feel when riding this bike. Sure, it’s stable AF, but it's a bit more than that. I could sum up the entire review with “Stable AF,” but that would be selling the bike short just a little bit. Overall the bike is an excellent climber because of its natural-feeling power delivery and obscene amounts of power. The testing I did on my wide-open local trails went much better. It prefers wide open climbs rather than tight and twisty technical sections. There’s so much power on offer.Īs far as the bike’s geometry goes, it’s a bit big and awkward on many of the Southern Utah mesa trails I did my testing on. The Altitude continued to assist on anything I could keep the tires to stick to. The extra power was noticeable on steep inclines where the other drives wouldn’t have enough power to continue giving you a significant amount of assistance. That move, unfortunately, doesn’t work as well on the Rocky.ĭespite having 108Nm of peak torque, the bike never felt torquey or too much to handle. The motor “afterburn” carries you up and over the obstacle. It's where you give it a pedal stroke or two right before a ledge or uphill obstacle. I’m used to making a move I call the ebike bump on other drives. On the flip side, the power turns off very quickly. There’s no noticeable lag between turning the cranks and getting some assistance from the bike. I’d argue the Altitude Powerplay is the most natural feeling ebike I’ve ever ridden. It makes for a very natural feeling ride quality. If you’re lazy and not pedaling hard, the motor gives you less juice. If you’re putting in a lot of work, the motor is too. Instead of an on/off switch of power, the Dyname acts more like a dimmer switch. The second thing I noticed is how smooth the power delivery is. You can hear a slight whirr, but for the most part, it’s pretty quiet. Compared to the Shimano and Yamaha drives, which aren’t overly obnoxious, the Dyname is much quieter. The first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. The Altitude uses a 720Wh for long rides.Ī couple of things stand out about the Altitude Powerplay, namely the Dyname drive. It packs a punch at 108Nm of peak torque. Speaking of Dyname, it’s an entirely new drive system for me. That goes a long way in keeping the bike from feeling too big. With the Dyname drive’s location on the frame, Rocky can get those chainstays relatively short at 436mm. That’s due to the regular MTB length chainstays. With a reach that long, it's surprising to see the chainstay length under 1300mm. The reach in XL is 513mm with a 1298mm wheelbase. It wasn’t as noticeable as on a non-ebike, but a little steeper could help keep that front wheel weighted better on the climbs. At 75.5° to 76.3°, the seat tube angle isn’t the steepest by today’s standards. Changing between settings is a pretty quick task. I spent most of my time testing in the neutral setting with a couple of short stints in the slacker setting. The heart tube angle ranges from 63.5° to 64.3°, thanks to Rocky’s Ride-4 geometry adjust system. It has 160mm of rear travel paired with 170mm up front. If you’re familiar with that bike, you’ll feel right at home on this one. The Altitude Powerplay looks pretty similar to the non-electric Altitude on paper.
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