![]() ![]() I reached the summit with 17% battery to spare.I had to stand up on the pedals for the last half mile or so, my legs were just noodles by then. I used gears 2 or 3 for the first half, most of the last half of the ascent was in first gear, and for the last two miles or so I bumped it up to level 5 assist, although it didn't feel any different than 3 at that point since I was below 20% battery remaining. I rode in level 3 assist for most of the ascent with occasional throttle use during the first half.but still! The two Diamondback riders had to use lower assist levels on average, with no throttles. To be fair, the Rockstar battery pack is about twice the capacity of what's in the Diamondbacks. I think it's impressive that it outperformed the Current and Response from Diamondback, both of which have efficient and expensive Gen 4 Bosch motors (Performance Line Speed). It felt incredibly well built, easily the best I've ridden from SONDORS (and I've ridden almost their whole lineup). live and learn! I'm not a professional MTB rider by any means, so I can't evaluate the Rockstar from that perspective, but I can say it's the most fun I've had on an ebike in a long time. I regretted that excessive motor use later, when I was running out of battery near the summit. During the ascent I doubled back about 2 miles to check on our broken down riders, and then repeated that 2 miles of the ascent to catch up with the other riders, maintaining ~20mph using level 5 assist and pedaling briskly. It's ridiculously powerful, able to easily accelerate up the inclines on throttle (at least when the battery is high). Keep in mind I'm a pretty big guy at 6ft 3in and about 200 pounds. It looks and feels huge, weighs 83 pounds, but for me it was the perfect combination of stable and nimble. ![]() Once we got about halfway down the storm cleared and the sun came out, the rest of the ride was amazing with a light warm rain, but my camera was dead by that point. Fair warning, I didn't edit the video at all, there's water on the lens for a lot of it, and an annoying backpack strap that kept falling in front of the camera, and sections of me leaning forward to minimize drag so you get nice blurry shots of the handlebars and ground. Another rider had good gear but forgot it in the van, he ended up wearing a spare pare of pants as a makeshift jacket! I shot the below video with my chest mount, starting at the peak and ending at halfway down the mountain. I'm a notoriously poor planner when it comes to extreme conditions. That was a hell of an experience, I brought a jacket and gloves but they weren't waterproof or particularly warm. The four of us that made it to the top were exhausted and rested too long up there, a thunderstorm rolled in and we had icy cold rain, hail, and wind for our ride down. The weather was sweltering hot at the start, after about mile 10 it got cloudy and cold, the last five miles or so were brutally cold and windy with sprinkles of cold rain. Bad luck as the ebikes have about 10k miles each and have been to the top of several other 14-ers! ![]()
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