Rocky Mountain is as Canadian as maple syrup, ice hockey and good buds, with a reputation for top-end bikes built to take on the burly tech terrain of the North Shore through to the hucks and high-speeds of Whistler. They have had a less than prominent profile in New Zealand, but with a new distributor, new dealers and a new range more suited to our conditions, they are looking good to take on the higher end of the Kiwi market.

The Instinct 950MSR utilises 29 inch wheels in a 130mm travel package wrapped in a Smoothwall carbon mainframe and an alloy rear end. As is the current trend in big wheelers, the head angle has been relaxed to 67.7 in the slackest setting give it a more aggressive yet stable nature. The beauty of it though is the Ride 9 flip-chip allows you to choose from another two head angles, as steep as 69.3, perfect to turn it from enduro to xc/endurance racer in minutes. In total there are nine settings for the geometry and suspension provided by moving the chip. This will explain it better than that poor attempt…

The suspension is controlled by a Fox Float DPS Evol shock, activated by a four-bar/rocker link configuration rotating on BC2 Pivots, which use angular contact bushings rather than cartridge bearings. Rocky claims less maintenance and smoother operation.

To keep them running smooth there are grease nipples on all the pivot points.

Press-fit BB92 and big main pivot to keep things stiff down below…

…Aided by a lot of carbon and a single Narrow/Wide 30t ring on RaceFace Aeffect cranks.

You can run a front derailleur if you desire to go that way…

…And there are ISCG05 tabs for a chainguide/bashguard. You can run two bottle cages, one inside the main triangle and one underneath the downtube.

A tidy and solid looking front end with plenty of carbon around the tapered headtube, hiding an FSA Orbit headset inside, and clean, simple entry ports for the internal cable routing.

The front end is taken care of by a Fox 34 Float, now resplendent with black anodized stanchions…

…and a  bolt-up 15mm thru-axle. Boost spacing is also used up front while the rear sticks with 142×12…

XT direct mount derailleur shifts the chain across an 11-42 SLX 11-speed cassette.

Compression adjustment is handled by the Grip 3-position lever.

Shimano SLX is the killer groupset, providing XT-like performance for the braking and shifting.

The Reverb remote lever tucks under a house-brand alloy bar and lock-on grips.

The WTB Volt saddle gets no arguments from us, nor does the Reverb Stealth with 150mm of hydraulic-actuated, infinitely adjustable drop.

Sun Ringlé 23mm internal width rims are decently wide for the big hoops…

…Shod with 2.3 Maxis Minion DHRs front and rear. No upgrading of rubber needed here.

Look out for our full review coming soon, check out the Rocky Mountain website for more details.

Thanks to On Yer Bike Wellington for the test rig.