WarrenB
Member
Rocky Mountain Altitude Review
Hi all, I just thought I should share my impressions after owning a Rocky Mountain Altitude Powerplay A70 for several weeks now. I know I scoured the internet for all the info I could get on it prior to purchasing so I thought I should contribute for others’ benefit.
The short version: I am loving the bike and feel that after agonizing over what to get for months I made the right decision for myself.
First impressions upon building the bike up were great. The bike looks fantastic and has gotten compliments from everybody who has seen it. I built the bike myself and didn’t come across any issues.
I’m finding the motor to be fantastic, with the most natural assist out of those that I have tested (Shimano, Brose, DynaMe). For me that means that it provides instantaneous power when stepping on the pedals and no motor over run (for instance the feeling of getting a full pedal of assist after only taking a half pedal) This was very important for me so that technical riding and “pedal drops“ could be done naturally. Overrun in instances such as the above can be pretty scary. The ability to finely control power to the rear wheel allows for smooth shifting as well.
Noise was a significant consideration for me when shopping and I’ll say the motor itself is very quiet but the pulley and torque sensor system certainly is not. I found that it can become bothersome if you start to run the chain a bit dry. I searched for the ideal chain lube for quieting down the more complex drivetrain and ordered some Chain L lube to try. I only have ~30 miles on the stuff but so far it seems to work really well. When The chain is properly lubed the noise doesn’t bother me at all, and it certainly doesn’t give it self away as an e-bike, as the motor itself is very quiet and is lower in pitch and doesn’t have the “whine” of something like the Shimano system.
In addition I find the assistance cutoff of the motor to occur at quite a high speed (seemingly 2mph faster than my girlfriends Shimano e6050 based commuter) and exhibit very good behavior at the cut off. I was quite concerned with being able to derestrict this bike before I got it, but now I’ve lost interest. I completed a 40 mile road ride with my girlfriend last weekend and the assistance felt perfectly adequate while pedaling at a high cadence in the top gear. It’s probably worth mentioning that I’ve never been a strong pedaler however.
I am coming from a Canyon Torque enduro bike with slack geometry and long suspension travel. With that as a reference I still felt like the bike was a bit too slack and sluggish with its “ride nine” flip chip set up in the stock neutral position. I have since moved to the “high” setting which raises the BB height and steepens the HTA. I feel that this not only increases cornering and overall agility but also that it allows the suspension to better control the weight of the battery/motor combination. In the neutral more slack setting it seemed like the weight wanted to dive forward and down in heavy braking/landing/cornering situations. I could feel the momentum of the weight pushing the bike around. The high setting was a big improvement there and it is what I plan to stick with for awhile. It hides the bikes weight the best and is balanced by the bikes inherent stability due to said weight. I also increased the volume spacer in the shock several sizes. The fork comes stock with four volume spacers installed (on a size large) and feels pretty good for my weight of 155 pounds. The large fits my 5’11” height perfectly (though my preference is for a shorter bike than some others to allow for playfulness (BMX background). With the bike set up well I have now found it very enjoyable to ride. It is easy to manual,hop, and maneuver. I really like the short chainstays and haven’t had any issues with the front feeling overly light on climbs thus far. I find that I am able to ride confidently and aggressively and am not held back by the bike, though it is definitely a different beast to a normal trail bike. The assist allows me to be much more engaged throughout my entire ride.
An unforeseen benefit is that I am not experiencing the upper back and neck tightness that has plagued me on my conventional bikes. I attribute this to not having to put down a lot of torque on the pedals. I think I’ve always strained myself in the past while trying to transfer maximum energy to the pedals and now with the assist I feel much more relaxed after my rides.
I am definitely a fan of the minimalist set up with the simple controller and no display. I tried briefly to connect the bike to the Ebikemotion app for additional bike info and adjustments but didn’t have any success. Will have to sort that out later. For now using the LED indicators to display battery life in 25% increments with an additional blinking red light to indicate below 5% is all I need/want. I have only run the battery down to below 5% once so far and that took a 40 mile road ride on mostly flat terrain and a 20 mile trail ride. (Minnesota, USA so no big climbs!)
Downsides to this bike? The weight. The bike is roughly 55 pounds and is heavy even by ebike standards. I knew this bike was going to be heavy going in so I knew what to expect, but reducing the weight and quieting drivetrain noise seem like the two areas with the most room for improvement. I’ve heard conflicting reports that mention the carbon models being less than a pound lighter than their aluminum counterparts to other claiming them as being very much lighter. Another potential downside is the value. I consider this build to be middle of the road value wise.
Everything else I’m finding to be spot on. I love the thing and won’t be looking back. I’ve already ridden this bike nearly as much as I rode all of last year!
Hi all, I just thought I should share my impressions after owning a Rocky Mountain Altitude Powerplay A70 for several weeks now. I know I scoured the internet for all the info I could get on it prior to purchasing so I thought I should contribute for others’ benefit.
The short version: I am loving the bike and feel that after agonizing over what to get for months I made the right decision for myself.
First impressions upon building the bike up were great. The bike looks fantastic and has gotten compliments from everybody who has seen it. I built the bike myself and didn’t come across any issues.
I’m finding the motor to be fantastic, with the most natural assist out of those that I have tested (Shimano, Brose, DynaMe). For me that means that it provides instantaneous power when stepping on the pedals and no motor over run (for instance the feeling of getting a full pedal of assist after only taking a half pedal) This was very important for me so that technical riding and “pedal drops“ could be done naturally. Overrun in instances such as the above can be pretty scary. The ability to finely control power to the rear wheel allows for smooth shifting as well.
Noise was a significant consideration for me when shopping and I’ll say the motor itself is very quiet but the pulley and torque sensor system certainly is not. I found that it can become bothersome if you start to run the chain a bit dry. I searched for the ideal chain lube for quieting down the more complex drivetrain and ordered some Chain L lube to try. I only have ~30 miles on the stuff but so far it seems to work really well. When The chain is properly lubed the noise doesn’t bother me at all, and it certainly doesn’t give it self away as an e-bike, as the motor itself is very quiet and is lower in pitch and doesn’t have the “whine” of something like the Shimano system.
In addition I find the assistance cutoff of the motor to occur at quite a high speed (seemingly 2mph faster than my girlfriends Shimano e6050 based commuter) and exhibit very good behavior at the cut off. I was quite concerned with being able to derestrict this bike before I got it, but now I’ve lost interest. I completed a 40 mile road ride with my girlfriend last weekend and the assistance felt perfectly adequate while pedaling at a high cadence in the top gear. It’s probably worth mentioning that I’ve never been a strong pedaler however.
I am coming from a Canyon Torque enduro bike with slack geometry and long suspension travel. With that as a reference I still felt like the bike was a bit too slack and sluggish with its “ride nine” flip chip set up in the stock neutral position. I have since moved to the “high” setting which raises the BB height and steepens the HTA. I feel that this not only increases cornering and overall agility but also that it allows the suspension to better control the weight of the battery/motor combination. In the neutral more slack setting it seemed like the weight wanted to dive forward and down in heavy braking/landing/cornering situations. I could feel the momentum of the weight pushing the bike around. The high setting was a big improvement there and it is what I plan to stick with for awhile. It hides the bikes weight the best and is balanced by the bikes inherent stability due to said weight. I also increased the volume spacer in the shock several sizes. The fork comes stock with four volume spacers installed (on a size large) and feels pretty good for my weight of 155 pounds. The large fits my 5’11” height perfectly (though my preference is for a shorter bike than some others to allow for playfulness (BMX background). With the bike set up well I have now found it very enjoyable to ride. It is easy to manual,hop, and maneuver. I really like the short chainstays and haven’t had any issues with the front feeling overly light on climbs thus far. I find that I am able to ride confidently and aggressively and am not held back by the bike, though it is definitely a different beast to a normal trail bike. The assist allows me to be much more engaged throughout my entire ride.
An unforeseen benefit is that I am not experiencing the upper back and neck tightness that has plagued me on my conventional bikes. I attribute this to not having to put down a lot of torque on the pedals. I think I’ve always strained myself in the past while trying to transfer maximum energy to the pedals and now with the assist I feel much more relaxed after my rides.
I am definitely a fan of the minimalist set up with the simple controller and no display. I tried briefly to connect the bike to the Ebikemotion app for additional bike info and adjustments but didn’t have any success. Will have to sort that out later. For now using the LED indicators to display battery life in 25% increments with an additional blinking red light to indicate below 5% is all I need/want. I have only run the battery down to below 5% once so far and that took a 40 mile road ride on mostly flat terrain and a 20 mile trail ride. (Minnesota, USA so no big climbs!)
Downsides to this bike? The weight. The bike is roughly 55 pounds and is heavy even by ebike standards. I knew this bike was going to be heavy going in so I knew what to expect, but reducing the weight and quieting drivetrain noise seem like the two areas with the most room for improvement. I’ve heard conflicting reports that mention the carbon models being less than a pound lighter than their aluminum counterparts to other claiming them as being very much lighter. Another potential downside is the value. I consider this build to be middle of the road value wise.
Everything else I’m finding to be spot on. I love the thing and won’t be looking back. I’ve already ridden this bike nearly as much as I rode all of last year!
