Rocky Mountain Instinct Alloy 50 Power Play... my impressions

[CavMan]

I recently bought a 2020 Rocky Mountain Instinct Alloy 50 and have done a few rides.

My first ride on an EMTB was a Specialized Levo Comp with Brose 90Nm motor and 700 Wh battery which we rented for the day and that convinced me to get an EMTB.

Being 196cm and 105kg I was concerned about the power of the Bosch and Shimano motors as the experience on the 90Nm Brose had set a pretty high expectation of what I wanted, especially for those steep climbs.

I did my research and finally settled on the Rocky Mountain based on torque, battery, price, rider weight limit and frame geometry. The Instinct came with a 108Nm Dyname motor and 670Wh battery. ?

I did some rides and tweaked the different power outputs for Eco and Trail modes using the Ebikemotion App as I felt it was using a little too much assist in those modes.

I use a Wahoo Elemnt Roam and used the Ant+ connection on the bike to add the sensor (bike) to the Wahoo. My Wahoo now displays battery usage, distance traveled, distance remaining, as well as what mode I am in. Unexpected bonus.

Thanks to Strava I ws able to repeat one of the rides I did on the Specialized to see how it compared as I was slightly concerned about the slightly smaller battery (30Wh less)and larger Torque (18Nm more). I was very pleasantly surprised.

Same distance and route. I tried to use the same spread of power modes used for both rides.
Specialized used 75% of the 700Wh battery with average speed of 14.2km/hr.
RM Instinct A50 used 72% of the 670Wh battery with average speed of 18km/hr.

Seems I rode harder on the RM (not that I noticed) and used less battery, I'm happy with that.

Now to the handling. I am no bike riding guru, and to be honest some of the speeds I am getting up to descending are getting a little scary. I just know my inner child is going to outpace my beginner skills soon.

I have been doing my research (thank god for YouTube videos) on everything EMTB, from cornering, bunny hops, suspension settings etc.

All I can say is this bike fills me with confidence, and I am getting a lot more air time off of little humps than I ever thought I could or would. I feel..... safe. If that is an easy way to say it. At no stage do I feel the bike is getting away from me and always lands easily filling me with more confidence to keep doing what I am doing.

I am no spring chicken at 55 and I got an EMTB because I was feeling my age trying to climb some trails as we wandered along.... mainly exploring. Definitely no hard riding. Now my rides are more..... exciting and adventurous, and the best part is they last longer. Geez this is sounding like an ad for Viagra. ?? 50km rides with some fast rollers and jumps versus 20km explorations along gravel tracks.

Someone with a lot more experience than me will be able to say something a lot more detailed about how these bikes (Specialized and RM) handle differently, but both were nice to ride for me. But now I am getting really used the RM and appreciate the solid handling and confidence inspiring feedback it gives me.

More rides to come, and the obligatory crash that we all experience a some point, but such is life.

 

[SupasafeElectroLumberjack]

looked at that bike myself, good spec etc but sold out. as you say, the speeds that we can get to are scary, the weight adds so much more momentum. just go easy, you've got a lot of bike to hurt yourself with!

 

[nineT]

I'm even a few years older and experienced the same thing on the Altitude

 

[Cuddles]

I recently bought a 2020 Rocky Mountain Instinct Alloy 50 and have done a few rides.

My first ride on an EMTB was a Specialized Levo Comp with Brose 90Nm motor and 700 Wh battery which we rented for the day and that convinced me to get an EMTB.

Being 196cm and 105kg I was concerned about the power of the Bosch and Shimano motors as the experience on the 90Nm Brose had set a pretty high expectation of what I wanted, especially for those steep climbs.

I did my research and finally settled on the Rocky Mountain based on torque, battery, price, rider weight limit and frame geometry. The Instinct came with a 108Nm Dyname motor and 670Wh battery. ?

I did some rides and tweaked the different power outputs for Eco and Trail modes using the Ebikemotion App as I felt it was using a little too much assist in those modes.

I use a Wahoo Elemnt Roam and used the Ant+ connection on the bike to add the sensor (bike) to the Wahoo. My Wahoo now displays battery usage, distance traveled, distance remaining, as well as what mode I am in. Unexpected bonus.

Thanks to Strava I ws able to repeat one of the rides I did on the Specialized to see how it compared as I was slightly concerned about the slightly smaller battery (30Wh less)and larger Torque (18Nm more). I was very pleasantly surprised.

Same distance and route. I tried to use the same spread of power modes used for both rides.
Specialized used 75% of the 700Wh battery with average speed of 14.2km/hr.
RM Instinct A50 used 72% of the 670Wh battery with average speed of 18km/hr.

Seems I rode harder on the RM (not that I noticed) and used less battery, I'm happy with that.

Now to the handling. I am no bike riding guru, and to be honest some of the speeds I am getting up to descending are getting a little scary. I just know my inner child is going to outpace my beginner skills soon.

I have been doing my research (thank god for YouTube videos) on everything EMTB, from cornering, bunny hops, suspension settings etc.

All I can say is this bike fills me with confidence, and I am getting a lot more air time off of little humps than I ever thought I could or would. I feel..... safe. If that is an easy way to say it. At no stage do I feel the bike is getting away from me and always lands easily filling me with more confidence to keep doing what I am doing.

I am no spring chicken at 55 and I got an EMTB because I was feeling my age trying to climb some trails as we wandered along.... mainly exploring. Definitely no hard riding. Now my rides are more..... exciting and adventurous, and the best part is they last longer. Geez this is sounding like an ad for Viagra. ?? 50km rides with some fast rollers and jumps versus 20km explorations along gravel tracks.

Someone with a lot more experience than me will be able to say something a lot more detailed about how these bikes (Specialized and RM) handle differently, but both were nice to ride for me. But now I am getting really used the RM and appreciate the solid handling and confidence inspiring feedback it gives me.

More rides to come, and the obligatory crash that we all experience a some point, but such is life.

Dude, its a Rocky - the speed stats you cite from your comparison ride says it all

 

[roboticinvesting]

I recently bought a 2020 Rocky Mountain Instinct Alloy 50 and have done a few rides.

My first ride on an EMTB was a Specialized Levo Comp with Brose 90Nm motor and 700 Wh battery which we rented for the day and that convinced me to get an EMTB.

Being 196cm and 105kg I was concerned about the power of the Bosch and Shimano motors as the experience on the 90Nm Brose had set a pretty high expectation of what I wanted, especially for those steep climbs.

I did my research and finally settled on the Rocky Mountain based on torque, battery, price, rider weight limit and frame geometry. The Instinct came with a 108Nm Dyname motor and 670Wh battery. ?

I did some rides and tweaked the different power outputs for Eco and Trail modes using the Ebikemotion App as I felt it was using a little too much assist in those modes.

I use a Wahoo Elemnt Roam and used the Ant+ connection on the bike to add the sensor (bike) to the Wahoo. My Wahoo now displays battery usage, distance traveled, distance remaining, as well as what mode I am in. Unexpected bonus.

Thanks to Strava I ws able to repeat one of the rides I did on the Specialized to see how it compared as I was slightly concerned about the slightly smaller battery (30Wh less)and larger Torque (18Nm more). I was very pleasantly surprised.

Same distance and route. I tried to use the same spread of power modes used for both rides.
Specialized used 75% of the 700Wh battery with average speed of 14.2km/hr.
RM Instinct A50 used 72% of the 670Wh battery with average speed of 18km/hr.

Seems I rode harder on the RM (not that I noticed) and used less battery, I'm happy with that.

Now to the handling. I am no bike riding guru, and to be honest some of the speeds I am getting up to descending are getting a little scary. I just know my inner child is going to outpace my beginner skills soon.

I have been doing my research (thank god for YouTube videos) on everything EMTB, from cornering, bunny hops, suspension settings etc.

All I can say is this bike fills me with confidence, and I am getting a lot more air time off of little humps than I ever thought I could or would. I feel..... safe. If that is an easy way to say it. At no stage do I feel the bike is getting away from me and always lands easily filling me with more confidence to keep doing what I am doing.

I am no spring chicken at 55 and I got an EMTB because I was feeling my age trying to climb some trails as we wandered along.... mainly exploring. Definitely no hard riding. Now my rides are more..... exciting and adventurous, and the best part is they last longer. Geez this is sounding like an ad for Viagra. ?? 50km rides with some fast rollers and jumps versus 20km explorations along gravel tracks.

Someone with a lot more experience than me will be able to say something a lot more detailed about how these bikes (Specialized and RM) handle differently, but both were nice to ride for me. But now I am getting really used the RM and appreciate the solid handling and confidence inspiring feedback it gives me.

More rides to come, and the obligatory crash that we all experience a some point, but such is life.

Awesome review. You don't hear a lot about the Rocky's in eMTB circles so this is nice to see a good review. You have a few years on me, but your reasoning for going the ebike route is similar to mine - climb up more times for more downhills, while still being able to walk the rest of the week ? Again, thanks for the review and info.