Mondraker Bikes Coming to the US
The 2018 Mondraker Foxy XR.
Mountain bike geometry is a hot topic these days, and a certain Spanish company deserves credit for being one of the first brands to promote the idea of a longer front center paired with a short stem. Mondraker debuted their Forward Geometry concept back in 2012, releasing a line of bikes with stubby, 10mm stems, and reach numbers that dwarfed nearly everything else on the market. The idea is that the longer front center brings stability at higher speeds, and allows riders to feel more confident dropping into steep terrain.
That Forward Geometry concept has been tweaked slightly over the years, and the stem length has been bumped up to 30mm, but the same general principles remain. Mondraker's offerings are also still some of the longest bikes available, even though a number of other companies have begun to release bikes based around similar geometry principles – as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
For riders in the United States, Mondraker's products haven't been that easy to come by, but that's about to change. Beginning this November, QARV Imports will be bringing a large portion of Mondraker's product line to the US, everything from DH bikes to XC bikes, and yes, even e-bikes. Although online bike sales are becoming increasingly common, for now Mondrakers will only be sold at select brick-and-mortar locations – the company is a strong supporter of the traditional independent bicycle dealer (IBD) sales model.
Mondraker CEO Miguel Pina said, “Bringing our bikes to the USA is a big step for our brand and we’re glad to be doing it with the support of QARV. It takes a lot of work to make the stars align just right and get success in our market and I believe that we have all of the right people involved to create that success in the USA.”
In order to allow potential buyers to try Mondraker's radical geometry out for themselves, QARV will be hosting several demo events, including stops at the Vail Outlier Offroad Festival, Outerbike, Pisgah Mountain Bike Festival, and Outdoor Demo East.
The base model Foxy Carbon R retails for $4,400, or you can cash in that retirement fund and spring for the $9,100 Foxy RR SL shown here.
Mondraker 2018 Highlights
The three models that will likely be the most interesting for Pinkbike readers are the Summum, Dune, and Foxy. The Foxy sees the most updates for 2018, including an increased amount of travel (it now has 150mm), and Boost spacing, which we covered here when it was announced in July. All of the bikes are available with either a carbon or aluminum frame, and with parts kits that run the gamut from basic to exotic.
The $7,800 Dune Carbon RR has 27.5" wheels, 160mm of travel, and a 170mm fork up front.
The alloy Dune R is priced at $4,600 USD.
The Summum Carbon Team Pro is World Cup ready, and retails for $9,400 USD.
The base model, alloy Summum is priced at a more attainable $3,900 USD.
www.mondraker.com/us
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singletrackworld.com/2017/04/mondraker-launches-the-e-crusher-e-bike
France and Germany already have a certification for e-moped components. Meaning stores are forced to use them otherwise they get sued. Moreover both countries are also discussing mandatory license and insurance, which will also be (I bet) extended to real bicycles.
Trail closure is already happening in various places, because of the exploding numbers of new "enduro" riders. E mop will only make it worst.
Just spent a week vacation in Chamonix, FR. For what its worth I saw e-bikes being ridding everywhere albeit mostly on the street, looked like commuter and townie use primarily, but lots of them. Several up at the lift areas as well, I only really noticed them riding up the fire road to the top, not sure if/when they came down the hill. The ultimate was seeing an ebike on the chairlift ha ha, although he was riding up from there although I noticed him walking it quite a bit on the trail he was climbing up.
personally I think the battle will be lost eventually, they are going to be too seductive for many people and too hard to police on the trail.
Rentals, for individuals or tours. Pretty much like segways. And this is how e-moped will end up.
I did see them on local trails and on road as well... Which is the problem. However in Europe, generally, you see 10/20x bikes more than in the US.
Moreover I did demo a couple of these and they are absolutely awful to ride.
Much slower than a bicyle, unless you are going on a smooth non technical trails/road.
They are aimed to beginners.
If you ever rode one, they are not "pedal assisted bicycles", but electric mopeds.
Which is exactly what the industry did.
Took the "tech" from electric mopeds used for deliveries and attached it to an ugly Mtb frame.
Mopeds, not bicycles.
And they can be blamed for it, because nobody -except industry executive and shop owners- wants them. Nobody in the industry is riding e-mopeds, unless they are getting paid to do so.
Besides the trail closure argument, an e-diot blasting up a smooth single tracks or flat sections on a e-moped is not going to be a cool experience for bike riders.
These things will increase hikers and general trail users hate for bikes. They are not going to make the distinction "that was an e-moped".
These thing should be relegated to touristic use, just like segways.
The bigger danger is not trail closure, but us bikers having to share trails with these electric mopeds.
They will run you over.
Industry fantasy is probably to shift all mountain bikers to e-moped riders. As the two can not co-exist on the same trail, as the speeds on smooth sections are quite different.
It is a normal cycle. Look at all the small companies producing CNC bits.... this is just like the 90's all over.
Few years and it will go back to normal.
In the meantime the industry will try to milk every drop of white juice to satisfy the thirsty lips and throats of business executives ("innovations" "new sectors" etc. every other day)..
I do agree with you on the big three points, though. Hopefully they change things up a bit!
Or they will be relegated to use in touristic areas for tours (as they have been for years) or they may be embraced by people that discover themselves "sporty" at later age or without wanting to sweat. Last two categories will not have easy life and eventually give up.
Motor assisted bikes have been around from day 1, and eventually ended up in motorcycles.
Between bicycles and motorcycles there is no room to fill. Especially as far as legislation goes.
This has been done again and again over the years.
Expand those as commuter in the city areas and they very likely end up with insurance, plates, helmets, turning signals etc. These could be extended to bikes as well, at least will spring for some kind of tax.
.In an ideal world I am pro e-mopeds as city commuters.
As a sport they have no future unless they can fork out serious money to have people like Nino Schurter and Aron Gwin racing on it. Which it is not going to happen as riding one of the mopeds sucks big time, as they weight a ton and weight is not going down in the future.
khsbicycles.com/bikes/2017-khs-models/dh-650-pro-17
www.pinkbike.com/photo/13227002
Sign of the times is that Specialized FSR suspension has gotten simpler and easier to service, since they're using pretty much the same bearings and bolt sizes on all pivots, and all other companies are adding linkages like there's no tomorrow. I was checking out my buddy's new Yeti and I got dizzy trying to figure out how things move; I had to remove the shock and move the linkage through its travel to figure out what was going on. I think that's now done on purpose because complexity must mean high performance.
Mastermind for the frame development is/was Cesar Rojo, that's for sure.
You guys are band wagon knob heads who would deprive people of the pleasure of biking for your pretend morals.
Ebikes are usually plus bikes, meaning they do less damage to the trails than normal bikes!
On the mondraker front; I can't see them competing with Cannondale; an aluminium Jekyll is $4300 CAD; aluminium dune is $5400.... Stupid price point.