with bikes such as the Element Race and the original Slayer in the early 2000s, Rocky Mountain has always been at the forefront of innovation – its legendary freeride pedigree is testament to that.
But in my eyes Rocky are on the radar even more so for recent achievements. Bikes like the RM9 and the RM7 were things of beauty, they did a job and did it well. The new look era has the brand coming back to glory with some great results in the EWS, including the 650b Altitude getting the top spot in Whistler piloted by Jesse Melamed. There is no doubting this bike’s design.
The brand may not be the undisputed king of freeride anymore but they’re most definitely still not a company to be underestimated with the Slayer, Altitude Powerplay and this, the Rocky Mountain Instinct BC long travel 29er heading up their offerings.
The all new Instinct BC is the longer travel stablemate to the 140mm Instinct. The shorter travel mile destroyer was so good they used it as a platform to create this bigger hitting enduro beast. There’s a largely similar design here except for a single position link as opposed the shorter travel bike having a flip-chip for geometry.
‘Size Specific Tune’ ensures that riders of all sizes get the right balance of small-bump compliance, mid-stroke support and end-stroke progressiveness. Rocky Mountain does custom shock tunes based on real world field testing, and adjusts each tune for specific frame sizes. It’s neat stuff and something you hope will become standard practice one day.
