The Chameleon Bike
Rocky Mountain Instinct

Rocky Mountain revitalizes its Instinct, keeping it pure and unadulterated. The latest iteration remains a versatile and fun-focused All Mountain ride with 150 mm of travel on the fork. Here’s a look at all the 2024 models.

In the tumultuous maze of the international bike industry, Rocky Mountain has managed to preserve the soul of the early years of mountain biking. Instead of chasing after racing-optimized innovation machines, these Canadians deliver solid bikes that can be maximally tailored to riders’ personal preferences. With Ride4 geometry and kinematics tuning, a length-adjustable rear end, and an offset headset, the Instinct has three places where it can be adjusted. You can’t get more flexibility than that.

When it comes to travel and wheel size, nothing has changed compared to its predecessor. The brand continues to rely on 150 mm of travel in the fork and 140 mm in the rear, and except for the smallest size, the Instinct rolls on 29er wheels.

The new Rocky Mountain Instinct is available in 5 sizes from XS to XL. The head angle is slack at 63.5 degrees, with the reach remaining moderate at 474mm in size L when set at its flattest. The seated position continues to be comfort-oriented. The chainstays can be extended by another 10 mm. In the most extreme Ride 4 setting, the head angle steepens by 0.8 degrees. With the arrow icon , you can pull each model from our extensive market overview into comparison with any other bike. This allows you to compare geometry data head-to-head.

In addition to an aluminum model, there are three carbon iterations of the new Instinct. As expected, the components on the two entry-level Instincts aren’t quite on par with what you’d get from price-aggressive brands like Canyon or Cube. However, with the C70 model at €7,900, the Canadians are indeed competitive. A weight of 14 kilograms and the excellent geometry are compelling arguments this bike brings to the table.

The new Rocky Instinct is available at launch in 4 spec options ranging from €4600 to €12000. Only the most affordable model features an aluminum frame, while all others sport carbon chassis. We took a look at all options. With the arrow symbol you can also compare each model against any other bike from our extensive market overview.

The YT Jeffsy and Canyon Spectral have already been introduced this year, joining the same travel category. And in a comprehensive comparative test, we’ve determined just how much one needs to invest to get their kicks on challenging singletrails.