NEWS: 2026 Rocky Mountain Altitude Powerplay 3

The Altitude Powerplay has been Rocky Mountain's full-power enduro e-bike for years, built around the Canadian brand's unusual in-house Dyname drive. For 2026 it reaches its third generation, and the headline is more grunt: the new Dyname S4 Pro lifts peak power to 1,000 W and torque to 108 Nm.

E-MOUNTAINBIKE frames it as a targeted technical update rather than a clean-sheet redesign - the enduro brief, 170/160 mm travel and adjustable geometry all carry over, while the motor, battery interface and suspension linkage are where the real work happened.

Unlike most rivals, the Dyname doesn't drive the rear wheel straight off the chainring. The motor sits a little higher in the front triangle and feeds power through an idler above the bottom bracket, which frees packaging space and suits the bike's high-pivot layout. The S4 Pro's big internal change is a new ratchet clutch in place of the old sprag clutch.

Rocky Mountain says the ratchet design uses pawls and springs like a freehub, making it more reliable, fully rebuildable and roughly half the weight of the old unit. An aluminium chain cover doubles as a heat sink to keep the motor cool, and the complete drive weighs about 3.2 kg.

The 720 Wh pack drops out of the downtube for charging or swapping, and pairs with the optional 314 Wh Overtimepack range extender for up to 1,034 Wh. A full charge takes 3 h 55 m on the 4 A charger or 7 h 35 m on the 2 A unit. Freehub flagged that the 720 Wh base gives "slightly lower range" than 800 Wh-plus rivals.

Suspension is the new LC2R (Low Centre Counter Rotating) dual-short-link high-pivot, with 160 mm rear travel and a 170 mm fork. Geometry is hugely tunable: the RIDE-4 flip chip offers four settings (about +/-10 mm BB height and +/-0.6 degrees of head angle, per The Loam Wolf), the head angle spans roughly 63.5-64.3 degrees, and a reach-adjust headset adds +/-5 mm of fit. It runs 29in or mixed wheels, with full 27.5in on the Small.

Three builds span alloy to carbon. US pricing runs from $6,099 (~R101 000) (Alloy 30) to $10,799 (~R178 000) (Carbon 70); other regions land at roughly CA$6,499 (~R107 000)-CA$12,499 (~R206 000), EUR 5,499 (~R103 000)-9,499 and GBP 5,299 (~R115 000)-8,699 (approx, in the source currencies as listed). South African retail comes via local distribution - see the live price watch below.