2025 Rocky Mountain Instinct Powerplay SL

Here it is. Another day, another e-bike. Let me save you some time:

“Nice motorbike!”

“You’re ruining everything!”

“If you guys write about one more e-bike, I’m never coming back.”

I’m curious to see if a light eMTB inspires more or less hate than a full powered eMTB, though. So please don’t disappoint!

Less is More

The bike here cuts a similar profile to other Rocky Mountain e-bikes (and regular bikes), but there’s a lot lurking under the plastic that is different. This is the first bike to come with the new Dyname S4 Lite drive system. It has less overall torque (65 Nm), less peak power (550w) and a smaller battery (480 Wh). The point of that is, of course, less weight. Rocky Mountain suggests an as-supplied weight of around 43 pounds. I haven’t weighed this one myself to keep them honest.

The new motor system is the big news here (or at least a pretty big part of it). It’s fascinating to me that Rocky Mountain has decided to make their own complete eMTB system. And now, somehow, they have a second complete unit and are taking it to some very, very large companies.

The Lite drive system on this bike is essentially a "scaled down" version of the full system. I put that in quotes because those are the words that everybody from Rocky Mountain keeps using but it’s difficult to wrap my brain around it. It sounds like they’ve just made everything a little bit smaller, which cut weight, size and power, but you likely need to be an electrical engineer to fully understand everything that is going on. There are other changes though:

- Magnesium casing vs. aluminum on the full size. Quoting from Rocky Mountain: “This is the separate freewheel attached to the crankset. This is an all-new component for this generation of Powerplay bikes. We’ve moved away from the Dyname 4.0 clutch bearing assembly and have replaced it with a ratchet assembly (drive ring, pawls, and springs). This allows us to save nearly 200 grams, while also improving reliability and serviceability”.

The Dyname system functions using three separate chainrings and cogs, compared to what is typically just one on most e-bikes. Motion starts with you turning the stock bottom bracket and crankset. Other than the ratcheting spider assembly, these are all standard parts, the same as those on your normal bike in the garage. As you turn the cranks, you apply tension to the chain which pushes on the pulley located directly above the chainring. This is the torque sensor pulley, and a hall effect sensor reads the deflection of that pulley and decides how much power to apply. Rocky claims that “because the torque arm is directly reading the tension that is applied to the chain it allows the Dyname system to deliver an instantaneous response when a load is applied to the pedals. It’s a mechanical solution to what normally would be a digital process that introduces lag when it comes to power delivery.” From there, your chain loops up and over what we generally consider to be the “idler” on a high pivot bike. On the Dyname system, this is the actual output cog for the motor, and it's responsible for transferring all of the power output to the chain.

The Instinct Powerplay SL vs. The Instinct

The Powerplay SL version of the Instinct shares a lot with other, regular Instincts. Not exactly though. Standing here from afar, I can see that the main pivot is quite a bit higher on the Powerplay, and the Powerplay is stated at 145mm of rear wheel travel compared to 140mm on the regular Instinct.

Geometry charts are similar enough that you need to look pretty darn carefully to spot the differences. Other common points are the included optional +/- 5mm headset cups, adjustable Ride 4 suspension system, proportional rear centers, and all of the relevant trademarked terms (smoothwall, smoothlink, etc. etc.). Beyond the suspension, the lack of a storage compartment and adjustable rear center are the most immediately obvious differences. And the price. Adding a motor and battery comes with a fairly hefty boost in the cost.

The bike on test here is the Carbon 70, which is a solid but non-fancy spec. Highlights:

• 150mm Fox 36 Grip X Performance Elite Fork
• 230x57.5mm Fox Float X Performance Elite Shock (it’s 210x52.5 on the XS frame)
• SRAM GX Transmission drivetrain
• Race Face Turbine handlebar and cranks
• SRAM Code Silver Brakes with 200mm HS2 Rotors and full metallic pads
• Wheels – Race Face ARC 30 28H rims on a DT Swiss 370 rear hub and RM branded front hub
• Tires – Maxxis Minion DHF 2.5 WT on the front and Minon DHR II 2.4 WT on the back. Both Exo+ and MaxxTerra
• Fox Transfer Performance Elite dropper post + remote – 120mm on XS and S, 150mm on M, 180mm on L and 210mm on XL
• WTB Volt Fusion CroMo railed Saddle

All that will run you 9,700 USD or 13,000 CAD. Other aluminum and carbon versions are available ranging from 5,500 US / 7,500 CAD for the Alloy 30, all the way up to 12,000 US / 15,000 CAD for the Carbon 90, and an alloy 70 BC Edition for with a longer stroke shock and fork for 8,000 USD / 9,300 CAD.

Frame and Suspension Design

There wasn't much in the way of suspension kinematics included in Rocky Mountain's press materials. I’d describe it as a high-ish, horst-ish bike. Coming off the idler, the chain is very in line with the main pivot so I’m not expecting overly high anti-squat numbers. Looking at the geometry of the linkage, I’d guess that there’s a decent bit of progression. And the high-ish pivot is going to have a lower anti-squat number. I don’t have any numbers to back this up, but if I were a gambling man I’d look to an analysis of the Rocky Mountain Altitude Powerplay for some guidance on what the shape of the curves might look like. Adding to the analysis challenge is the Ride 4 system that increases all of the variables under consideration.

What this also tells us is that while the Instinct Powerplay looks a lot like the regular Instinct, moving that pivot up and adding an idler changes the way this bike will ride substantially. I did spend some time looking for some reviews on the new Instinct that was launched earlier this year and didn’t find much other than a couple of first looks, but it seems like that wouldn’t have been all that helpful on informing me as to what was happening here. I’ve asked Rocky Mountain for some information on the kinematics so we’ll see what comes through for the final review.

The frame is mullet compatible (with a swap to a dedicated link) and has size adjusted geometry via 3 different lengths of rear center – from 430 on the XS frame, to 440 on the S and M, to 450 on the L and XL. Angles are around 64 degrees for the head angle and 77 degrees for the seat tube angle, adjusting a teensy bit up or down depending on your Ride 4 setting. Reach on my XL is a not-super-long 510mm, adjustable 5mm fore-or-aft with different cups. Stack is a reasonable 641. Geometry on other sizes can be viewed below.

First Ride/ Dyname System Impressions

With a looming embargo deadline and a brief weather window, I picked up the bike, snapped some photos, twiddled some knobs and hit the trail. I haven’t ridden an e-bike off road in a good couple of years, so there were a lot of newish feelings to wrap my head around. This also means that I don’t have any experience on the latest and greatest of the new e-bike motors for comparison. My most common e-bike experience is my years old Trek/Bosch commuter setup.

The first impression was that this is an easy to understand system. Turn the bike on, pick one of 4 output levels, then ride! Digging through the (very thorough) manual, I see that there are some more complicated settings and tuning opportunities if you choose, but this bike doesn’t require a large amount of technical understanding to get going.

The power delivery is super intuitive as well. Power hits as soon as you stomp on the pedals and stops as soon as you back off. There are no lags and there’s no weirdness. It all just feels very, very natural. The one quirk I’ve discovered so far is that if you keep pressure on the pedals while stopped the bike will shimmy back and forth a little bit, but this is pretty manageable.

Power-wise, I would describe the four settings things thusly:

1) Feels suitable for overcoming the additional drag and weight of the motor system. Next.

2) Is this an e-bike? I thought they said this was an e-bike. If forced, I would admit that I am moving faster than I normally would.

3) Okay! That’s more like it! This is an experience that I can get behind. We’re not scaring chipmunks and hikers just yet, but this feels like a nice way to ride some additional mileage.

4) Zoom zoom! We’re decidedly within local speed restrictions, but this is a good amount of support to get a nice climbing boost, especially up technical singletrack.

I started my ride in mode 3 and prepared for a longish ride to acquaint myself with the bicycle. I was just about to get started with my typical shakedown lap (Asian Adonis and then loop around to John Deer) when I bumped into Trevor Hansen on his full power Rocky Mountain e-bike. “I’m heading up to Cambodia and I’m going to do some trails off there. You comin’?”

It was not dry. I was already late for my afternoon commitments. I hadn’t set up my suspension properly. My tires were both MaxxTerra. I looked at him, I looked in the direction I was previously heading. I looked at him again. I looked off into the distance. Back at him. It got awkward as I thought it through.

“Sure!”

The lap quickly turned into something a lot bigger than I had planned on biting off that morning. I stuffed it into mode 4 and chased off after Trevor. I managed to keep him mostly in view on the climbs and the downs. I clanged bottom both front and rear on a few things, and I rode around a couple of the slippier looking rock rolls. Then we turned around and climbed back up. Then we rode down again. Then we climbed back up the powerlines. Then I left him because I was, quite frankly, exhausted. Honestly, anybody that claims e-bikes take all of the fitness out of a bicycle ride probably hasn’t ridden one of these things with any sort of ambition. I’ve been off the bike for a month so my fitness isn’t great, but even if a better version of me had completed that ride, getting an e-bike up the wall that is the powerline climb takes work! If I didn’t have the e-bike assistance I’d probably still be pushing my bike to the top.

So far I’m feeling pretty good about this bike. Now that I’ve read the manual I can see why I clanged my suspension a few times and I have some setting changes to take on before my next ride. This new Fox 36 is looking like it’s going to need a lot more in both pressure and tokens compared to what I’m used to, and there are a lot of possibilities for the rear end as well. Now that I’ve firmed up both I’m looking forward to riding things a bit more aggressively.

Power-wise, I wasn’t in a different league than Trevor on his full power Rocky, but he did slowly pull away from me on the climbs. A good portion of that is down to skill though, as I am not yet well versed in steep technical e-bike climbs. As well, Trevor indicated that he’s struggling to keep up with the latest crop of Bosch motor bikes.

The biggest thing I’m immediately noticing (or not really noticing) though is the weight. Once underway, I’m not really feeling any negatives about the additional 10 pounds or so that I’m carrying compared to my regular bike. Geometry-wise, this bike is really, really close to the GG Smash I’ve been riding. It does feel a little bit slower turning in on things, but I’ll have to do some back-to-back rides to get a better feel on that. Even when I did a few little hike-a-bikes through the woods after I spotted some trailside mushrooms, the weight wasn’t that noticeable, though I probably wouldn’t make a habit of carrying this bike long distances.

Rocky has made some specific decisions on parts here to keep the weight down. If I owned the bike I’d probably be throwing either double down or Continental DH casing tires on. I think I’m just going to leave the stock tires on and see where that gets me. I won’t have to replace those aluminum rims if things go wrong, after all. Some might probably wish for something a little more powerful in the braking department as well, but the Codes were fine on my first ride.

Hopefully I can put some good fall hours into this thing and see what it does. I’ve got a few adventures planned and I’m looking forward to exploring beyond my typical laps.

Rocky Mountain Instinct Powerplay SL