Mountain Cycle Battery

Single pivot slopestyle or Freeride phenom?

Built on 7 people's drive to create bikes, Mountain Cycle has recently brought the Battery up to full charge and it's their answer to the slopesyle needs of today's riders. The Battery is a super burly little bike with a whole ton of CNC'd parts. It has very clean lines, a very simple single pivot suspension design and a dialed geometry for what it's intended to do.

Read on for more info on the Battery...In the past Mountain Cycle was known for their business standpoint of "the bigger the better". Recently Mountain Cycle has re thought this standpoint, and started to widen their field. From the drawing board to the bike, the Battery has been a couple years in development now, but the final product is a well thought out, well designed bike that is capable of anything within its intended purposes. Mountain Cycle has gone away from the massive swing arms, and went to a more Zen concept, or a simpler design. Mountain Cycle says that "this is the bike for the rider who wants to go big, but keep the bike as small as possible", and that's is exactly the bike they have designed here.


Designed around a single pivot that uses a massive pivot point and a fairly high shock placement the Battery has no fancy linkages, or technologies to go wrong. 1 single pivot point ensures the suspension not only works, but makes for an extremely easy bike to maintain, and rip on. For starters Mountain Cycle has gone with a slopestyle specific geometry. The headtube is at 68.5 degrees, the seat tube is at 74 degrees and a 13" high, 73mm wide bottom bracket, that's missing its ISCG mounting tabs. We're unsure if this was a factory problem, but it seemed odd to make a Slopestyle bike without them. It has 5" of travel and sits at a 41.7" wheelbase, right around the average for Slopestyle bikes. Its constructed with a 1.5" headtube for strength, but with an extremely short headtube height of 4.3 inches. This small headtube matched with the steeper headtube angle equals a low stack height, with a touchy cockpit when it comes to steering. The 74 degree seat tube angle puts the rider in an upright position when seated. This aids riders in pedal efficiency, and general fatigue prevention.


The Battery frame is constructed with Tubular materials. This not only keeps the final cost down due to limited machining, but also creates a very strong bike. Remember, we came from tubular bikes, it's not all about material manipulation these days. The Battery features replaceable drop outs, which is really smart when it comes to Slopestyle bikes. It allows you as the rider to run any kind of 135mm wheel, and have dropout options to go along with those options. That also means that when you bend a drop out from hucking and flipping that you can bolt on a new straight one again. The bottom bracket and pivot point area on the down tube have been CNC machined from one large piece of aluminum. It has been CNC'd to be structurally strong, but also to provide a stiff, well thought out place to mount the cranks, and place the pivot, while still preserving an appropriate stand over height, and seat tube angle.


The swing arm of the Battery is a beautiful piece of machining. It features some very clean lines and welds, with great attention to detail, and finish. Designed around actual chain stays and seat stays, the Battery's swing arm is more open then some of Mountain Cycles' previous works. This gives the rear end a cleaner look. It also has no clutter on the seat stays from cable guides, instead, the cables are ran on the chain stays, adding to that overall clean look.


Our Battery was spec'd with a Fox RP23XV. Essentially it's an RP23 but a larger air can, so the shock's compression ramps up on the bottom out. The shock's factory tune was set at medium rebound, and high compression. Fox started doing these "shock tunes" a short while ago. Basically they setup the internals of the shock to work better from the factory with the suspension type. With this single pivot suspension design that follows a linear curve it needs a high compression damper to aid with a more comfortable bottom out feel. The RP23 also has a lock out lever, 3 adjustments for pro pedal, and a rebound adjustment knob, all in 1 tight little package.

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After a couple weeks of collecting parts and taking our time, we finished building the Mountain Cycle Battery. We spec'd our Battery with a longer travel build. The fork of choice was the RockShox Domain 318, which is a 180mm (7 inch) fork. The Battery has a steeper headtube angle (68.5) so the slightly longer travel fork slackened it out a bit, which put the bike into a more relaxed position. As the Battery uses a 1.5" headtube, we were forced to use a reducing headset to run our 1.125" fork on it. We chose to go with the Cane Creek Double Xc II Flush Reducer Headset. The Battery was put on some Mavic CrossMax SX wheels which were exceptionally light, strong, and fit perfectly on the bike. The CrossMax wheels were mated with a pair of WTB Prowler MX Tires, which are 2.3", All Mountain tires. I am pretty familiar with the Prowler MX tire as it's been on a previous test we had done. The Prowler MX is a wicked tire that is very predictable in both wet and dry conditions, and features WTB patented DNA Rubber.


The cockpit on the Battery consisted of the Nuke Proof Warhead Bar and Stem combo. We recently got our hands on this setup, and were more than happy with the design, and general feel of the handlebar and stem. The stem is the perfect length for this bike (50mm) and the bar features a comfortable bend and sweep. For braking we set the Battery up with a pair of Shimano Saint disc brakes. We finished up the cockpit with some WTB GTO Clamp On grips. The lock on or clamping feature of GTO Grips makes a funny looking hump on each side of the grips that most people think would effect their feel, but it doesn't - we were not effected by the protrusions. The grip design makes for easy handling and the slight bulge in the center of the grip aids your arms in less arm pump through a more natural hand position.

Shifting on the Battery was taken care of via a SRAM X7 mech and a SRAM X9 shifter pod. The X7 mech is more then functional, and features all the adjustments the X9 does, just in a slightly heavier and less expensive package. Getting from the shifter to the mech was the Jagwire Ripcord. We chose a SRAM PG 970 Cassette, in an 11-26 tooth range as the Battery was going to be going down the vast majority of the time. This matched with the E Thirteen 36 Tooth guide ring, and their all new SRS+ Chain Guide. The SRS+ features E Thirteen's all new TurboCharger bash ring, and is offered in either black or white. We chose to mix it up a bit and go with the white version. After it was mounted up I put my own custom Straitline Pinkbike pedals on it, and we were ready to roll! Bolted up a WTB SST saddle on to the provided Thompson Post. The SST is probably the oldest model of WTB saddle we have ever featured, but it's still a wicked seat! The SST was WTB's first step into the slant nose design that many riders like today, and we had a mint condition one for our ride.

Frame	Mountain Cycle Battery Frame •20.2" Top Tube
Rear Shock	Fox RP23 XV
Fork	RockShox Domain 318 •180mm of travel
Headset	Cane Creek Double XC Flush Reducer
Crankarms	Shimano Saint
Chainring	Shimano Saint, 36t
Bottom Bracket	Shimano Saint
Pedals	Straitline "Pinkbike" Pedals
Chain	Generic Chain
Cassette	SRAM PG 970 Cassette 11-26
Rear Derailleur	SRAM x7
Shifter Pod	SRAM x9
Handlebar	NukeProof Warhead 750mm
Stem	NukeProof Warhead 31.8mm Clamp •50mm reach
Grips	WTB GTO Grips
Brakes	Shimano Saint, 6" rotors
Front Wheel	Mavic CrossMax SX
Rear Wheel	Mavic CrossMax SX
Tires	Front,WTB Prowler MX 2.3 Comp •Rear,WTB Dissent MX 2.3 Comp
Saddle	WTB SST Saddle
Seatpost	Thompson Elite

After the build was completed we didn't hesitate to put it on the scale, where it weighed in at 35 pounds, 2 ounces. From this point we know that we could go burlier, but don't feel any need or really strip weight down, but at the risk of running parts that could fail under the riding conditions and style that we wanted to ride the bike at.

I set the Battery up for my weight class, 155 pounds, and my riding style. I ended up putting just about 160psi in the rear shock, and am currently running it on Pro Pedal setting 3 (The highest). The lock out function on the RP23 XV is very useful as it allows you to have a pedal platform that is ready all the time, just flick it to the other side and you're good to go.


The suspension set up on the Battery was a nice balance with the 5 inch travel frame matched up with the 7 inch travel fork, that managed to slacken it out a bit. The Domain 318 ran perfectly as usual, and all the adjustments were 100% functional throughout the test. The Domain 318 features minimalist adjustments, Rebound and Compression, but they proved to be all I needed (and all that 95% of riders out there need too). The Domain's compression adjustment range is actually very vast, allowing you to dial it in for the ride, and the hike. With the 318's compression setting dialed in, the fork hardly moved, creating a nice "pedaling platform" when matched with the lockout on the RP23 XV. The RP23's lock out feature proved to be very helpful when climbing the Battery up to various trail heads. It has a fair amount of pedal bob when climbing due to the suspension design, however the lock out feature creates a rock solid climbing platform on the Battery. Feedback from the suspension system was minimal, and was usually only produced under braking forces. This is an issue all single pivot riders will run into, but there should be a floating brake setup available to eliminate this issue.


The Mavic CrossMax SX wheels worked really good at putting the power down. Using their ITS4 System (Instant Transfer System) the responsiveness of the pawl mechanism was amazing. Unlike a basic wheel, the 2 by 2 pawl system provides many more engagement points. The first ride introduced a small amount of drag from the wheels, but after a couple laps on the wheels they were rolling smooth, and effortless. The WTB Prowler MX tires provided an appropriate amount of traction in damp, and dry dirt - we're pleasantly surprised at these tires. They have a fairly large channel, which helps them eject the dirt, and keep you rolling on traction. The large spacing of the knobs does not express very good traction on roots, but we all know how much traction you can get off wet roots to begin with. Throughout the whole review we did not run into a issue with the Crossmax SX wheels.


The Saint components again proved to be very functional and reliable. The Saint cranks I rode were 170mm lengths, which is the same as I've been running all season. Stiff, strong, and ready to put the power down. The E Thirteen SRS+ guide worked perfect on the Battery regardless of the ISCG adapter plate and lack of tabs on the frame. It provided perfect chain protection and retention throughout our test period. One issue viewers had expressed at the preview was it packing up with dirt. We never took the Battery on any super abusive wet rides, but on all our semi-dry rides it was a non issue. Not once did we run into a issue with the SRS+, so I would say it's one dialed chain guide.

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On the Mountain Cycle website it advertises the Battery as being great at manual'ing, so I had to give it a try. Well, first rearward lunge on the Battery landed me flat on my back. No word of a lie, this bike loves to be on the back wheel. With a short swing arm and using a single pivot design the Battery is great at cat walks, manuals, and general steeze. As it's a single pivot I learned fast that the center of gravity changes drastically when the suspension is active, and if you're not careful you're going to end up backwards and on your ass. The swing arm shrinks into the frame, making the wheelbase shrink up, and this action can catch some riders off guard pretty easily. That being said, it only surprised me once or twice, then I figured out what not to do when being active on the bike.


Mountain Cycle designed the Battery around a one bike for one rider idea. They did not create any optional sizing, or options for the Battery. Simply put, it comes as you see it. The fact you can't order a larger size at all puts the Battery into a niche already. All excessive material has been removed, all angles have been nipped and tucked, and all the lengths precise. This keeps the Battery in a small package, for a rider looking specifically for a bike of this style. The Battery is definitely not a bike for everyone. It's small, tight, and fast.

Although the Battery is a one size fits all design, it matched up well with all our parts. We used a slightly larger fork than it was designed for, but the Battery felt just fine in all aspects of riding with the 7 inch fork. When exiting corners you could feel the bike climbing away from you, which could have been accented by the slacker than stock headtube. That being said there was not a time on the Battery where this lead to a feel of it being out of control. I always felt comfortable on the Battery regardless of positing, trail placement, or conditions.


All in all I think the complete design of the Battery is nice. The rough finish on the frame is very durable, however does not rinse off very well. When cleaning the Battery you would want to scrub it down to avoid smudging the dirt into the pores of the anodized finish. The main pivot area never posed an issue, however I am interested to see how this system will hold up. Everything about the Battery's frame felt secure, and structurally strong. We're not excessive jumpers, but the bike felt stable in the air that we did catch during the test period. If we make it from lip to tranny it worked out well.


When it came to cornering, the Battery caught me off guard a fair bit. As the suspension design causes it to shrink, it likes to cut corners. I found when riding, I would enter corners slightly later, and ride them out as far as I could. This cornering method seemed to work well with the Battery, and I managed to carry a fair amount of speed out of corners. On the flip side, if you were to cut a corner on the Battery, the suspension would shrink from the compression and shoot you out in the direction you were aiming. So when cornering you had different things you could attempt that would all put you in different body positions, and placements on the bike, resulting in quick corners, but lots of body English to make it happen smoothly.



Some possible potential problems I see with the Battery will now be touched on. As mentioned above the lack of ISCG struck us as very odd. We couldn't find a reason why you would build a tight, dialed slopestyle or freeride bike and not attach ISCG mounts, unless it was the chainline or something like that. We ran into zero issues with the ISCG adapter plate in place, which proves to us welding some ISCG mounts to the Battery would be a step in the right direction. Clearance from the crank arm to the swing arm is very minimal. With our setup we were forced to run spacers on either side of the BB in order to make space and push the crank arms out and away from the frame. We did not experience any impact to the frame or swing arm during our test, however, it was always in the back of our minds. The 13" bottom bracket height seemed sufficient, however I did hit some rocks and other objects with my pedals when riding more aggressive trails.


All together my experience on the Mountain Cycle Battery was awesome. It's a really fun trail bike that can be adapted to many different riding styles. It held up awesome to berms, jumps, drops, even crashes, and ran flawlessly through out it all. I'd suggest this bike for someone who is mid height range, and interested in a fun, single pivot trail, or jumping bike. The Battery is more than capable enough, and built like a rock, so it should take all the abuse you throw at it. It's offered in 2 color schemes, Black with a RockShox Monarch at $1225 US, and Orange with a Marzocchi Rocco at $1325 US. So, if you're in the market for a 5 inch travel bike and think the Battery fits the bill take a look at Mountain Cycles, distributed in Europe and the States.