Descending My first descent aboard the Foxy SL started from the summit of Pike's Peak, 14,114 feet above sea level. The initial portion of that descent is more of a hiking trail than anything created with bikes in mind, full of super tight switchbacks and awkward rocks sections. It's a section of trail that would be tricky on any bike, unless you're Chris Akrigg or Danny MacAskill, but it did work well to immediately illustrate the shortcomings of the extra-long front center, namely the fact that it was more difficult to get through those extremely tight sections of trail than it would be on something with a shorter wheelbase.
However, once things opened up a bit it was much smoother sailing – literally. The Foxy is in its element when there's room to let it run, and the terrain isn't
too rough – picture flying down a ribbon of high alpine singletrack, or making GS turns through a grove of aspen trees. It was moments like that where the bike felt like it was floating, delivering a smooth, incredibly controlled ride. Even with those relatively short chainstays, this is still a bike that prefers making long arcs, carving down the trail rather than hopping and popping from one trail feature to the next. Stability is the name of the game here, and that's certainly the Foxy's most outstanding trait.
That being said, I found myself wondering what a 29”-wheeled Foxy would be like, especially if it were just a touch shorter (I know, it's borderline sacrilegious to suggest that a bike is too long). Mondraker's main reason for the extra-long geometry is stability, which is why offering a bigger wheelsize seems like a logical next step.
Although it's billed as an all-mountain bike, the Foxy feels more like a long-limbed trail bike, especially in rockier or rootier sections of trail. It's very light and stiff, and that makes it feel a little more likely to get knocked off line, rather than being able to plow straight on through. The margin for error in the really rough stuff seems smaller than it is aboard something like a Santa Cruz Bronson or a Trek Remedy – there's a sharpness to its handling that requires a more attentive pilot than those two aforementioned bikes.
The final note regarding the Foxy's descending skills is related to the frame design - I'm a big fan of the Foxy's looks, but I'm not a fan of the upper shock link's position and width. I smacked the inside of my right knee (I ride left foot forward) on the linkage a few times more often than I would have liked while descending. It didn't happen on every ride, but it occurred often enough that it's worth mentioning.
The Foxy's low weight is praised, but I'm surprised they can't come up with more than a 800g (or even less if those are just Exo casing tires) weight saving, at 9000$!
@Trekslash360 -- Says the guy riding a new Trek Slash 9.9!
Also, how many of you bitching about the price of a bike (that you're not forced to buy) read this article on your $800+ cell phone?
@MTBrent: Those $800 cell phones are competitive in their performance category. This bike isn't. For ~$10k you can get TWO other bikes with a BETTER spec, or an Unno, or a totally custom bike from RobotBike Co, or buy a killer consumer-direct bike and use the other $5k to take the bike trip of your dreams. They've priced themselves out of their target market.
That being said, we're going to be covering a wider spread of price-points in this year's bike reviews.
Ridiculous.
Paying more than 10x that cellphone price for an item that used in one's leisure time, and take into account that as soon as you wheel it out the door of the bike shop it is instantly worth 30-40% less than what you paid for it, well... it's not hard to see how that comes across as a bit absurd. 'No one is forcing you to buy it' Yeah, great argument mate, no one is forcing me to order the sh*t sandwich from the menu either, but that wouldn't stop me from pointing out how ridiculous that it is being offered.
There's a lot of people out there with money they didn't earn.
A world without equality is seen as normal, and blindness took over men kind.
l don't feel sorry for people who don't buy things cause it's to expensive, but l do feel sorry when they by stuff they can't afford
I mean, I know I could buy some custom stuff, built out of ur-anuium, in space vacuum by naked Spanish ladies in translucent space suits. But, I don't want to look like a hipster with that thing, this is not 2001, people!
And it's too late for getting a gold bike, now the sheiks already have platinum e-bikes, I can't be seen with something gaudy in this day and age.
No, I need a decent mass produced plastic cabron bike that I can ride... you know? I'm seriously, you guys!
$200 phone will do everything that a $800 one does. Except telling people who's the boss.
This bike is expensive, but it's quite different from any other bike ; Mondraker is trying to take things a bit further. I'd buy this bike instead of a half-baked Intense
I would love to see a picture of this, you on the water with a mast and sail coming out of the top tube...
????
intensecycles.com/collections/tracer/products/2017-tracer-factory-build
A 36 is the standard for an All Mountain bike and the stiffness does matter.
This bike should be priced at 6500-7000, I cant believe 7000.00 is considered a balanced price for a bike now...
Excellent.
Thank you for this.
But I guess I have to clear up for both you and @CruJonez that I'm not arguing *for* people buying $800 phones. I'm arguing that there is a ton of utility in such a device, and most folks use them daily, so as I stated it "seems like a comparative bargain." So to pay over 10x that for a leisure device...
Yeah, you know what, forget it. Not going to waste time trying to explain the point, lol.
Thanks PB!
mrblackmorescorner.blogspot.com.es/2017/07/mondraker-foxy-2018.html
@Happymtbfr @femto505 @jclnv @brianpark The graphs in the article are insufficient and the "shock characteristics" graph is only the compression curve of the shock, so this is like nothing. Leverage rate or rear wheel forces graphs would be useful to understand better the bike.
Cheers!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0bAVTiFyy4
Keep it up guys!
And don't tell me you can buy a motorcycle for that price. So what. You can also buy a billion M&Ms for that. Why are bike prices always compared to motorcylce prices? I bet 95% of pinkbike readers don't care about motorcycles so you may as well compare them to how much milk or cheese you can buy for that money or donate to the WWF. Or whatever else there is in the world to buy.
:-))
(P.S. I only compare bike prices to bike prices... Actually I compare everything to bike prices)
What now, do you want a regular bike for 10k, or a motorcycle?
Probably not the same people :-)
www.kawasaki.com/products/2018-KX250F
Personally, it seems like a logical investment.
we change .636 centimeters to meters wich acording to my calculator is this 6.36e-7.
then we divide 375 by 6.36e-7.
we would need: 589,622,641 m&m to fill a pool wich will cost 876 mondraker foxy carbon by @woofer2609 calculations.
For comparison, a large 2018 Stumpjumper has a 431mm reach with a 74 deg seat angle. To achieve the same type of riding position, you would have to move to a small (!) Foxy and run at least a 200mm dropper post. Or look like a roadie while you ride.
I will never forget it, this is when I stopped with such behavior. A giant lifted diesel pick up truck stops next to me (pick up in Europe is strange enough this was super weird) and I think to myself, "oh you fkng small dicked wanker" and the dude getting out of it is smiling, looking super happy. And my inital reaction was, oh yeah, what the fk is so cool... I thought to myself, what kind of a sad, fkd up person one has to be to assume that this dude is not happy, oh yeah he looks happy but he isn't because he owns this sht, how could I assume that he is not actually happy by driving this truck. As happy as me riding a cool bike.
You know who talks like that? A fkng preacher in the church, a dysfunctional deviant telling people that those who fk outside ofmarriage are miserable, they may look happy but we know better what's good for them and they can't be happy. That is the level 99% of price comments are on Pinkbike. Miserable wankers. Go fuk yourselves with your bragain deales on your bikes that are best in the world. According to you. And NOBODY else. Nobody cares what piece of junk you are riding, whether you paid 2k being worth 5k or it costs 12k cuz you put 3k of components on top of original 9k. Nobody cares if you own a moto for less - Get fkd
pushing boundaries big time, but seems way outside of what the athletes are ridding or even looking for.
Maybe their ews credentials come from the pilots predominantly?
The bike had some fun things about it, but overall I didn't like the loooong geo. While it monster trucked good up general pfaff when climbing, when it came time for real tech I just wasn't able to shift my bodyweight back and forth to get rear wheel traction and donkey punch up obstacles. I had the same problem on downhills, if I had to start jumping tracks or monkey humping around the bike to get it over stuff it was just too much of a bus. It was as this review says, super fun for swooping down arcing switch backs and it was fun to turn on fast open stuff and handled speed chunk very well. But here agian when inching down very steep loam slopes, I just felt like I couldn't hop the bike up into a better line or rear steer as well.
So just a data point to say, while my next bike will be in the 465+ reach range (so I can run a short stem if nothing else) this new long geo is good for some and not others, so if you are getting carried away by the new long geo hype, make sure and demo it extensively to make sure it works for you.
I have ridden a mates L Foxy which has a 500mm reach and it felt similar to my bike which has a 440mm reach and slack ST. You are more in the middle of the bike on the Foxy than mine. I don't think they are as bad as the numbers lead you to believe they are.
I would recommend trying out a long reach bike with a steep seat angle and seeing how you get along.
I am the same height as the tester in this review and have a bike with 520mm reach and love it!
One thing that's missing, still, and is probably hard to achieve logistically would be a bit of emphasis on how rider build/size/body type plays into it. You mention your size/weight/ride style, and then you talk about how the sheer length of the bike (and especially the front end) means you had to use a fair bit of body English to make it work on technical climbs. As a 6'1" 220# rider with a long torso, that makes me wonder whether for someone like me, the seemlingly excessive length would actually be an advantage on technical climbs, as even my Process 111 (not exactly a short bike) sometimes seems to get overwhelmed by me getting all spastic and moving my weight around.
And when you talk about how it carves more than weaves and bobs and pops, I again wonder how that would translate to a bigger or smaller rider - from experience, I know that the way I experience those things is very different from lighter/smaller riders.
If you could have people ride the bike and then report on how it worked for them in those respects (to highlight the size and rider type dependent 'is it for you" bit), it would make a pretty awesome in depth review ever so much more valuable. In fact, if you're even looking for a biggish, heavy-ish, reasonably athletic and strong but technically very much intermediate rider to contribute that sort of input on any of the wonderbikes here on Galby, hit me up anytime
I am the same way, I am not quite 5'11" with only a 30" inseam - long torso. Bikes with even 460mm reach feel too short for me without a fairly long stem. I rode a large 2017 Process 153 (475mm reach) and it was a revelation.
I ride an XL 2017 Bronson now, when in theory I am a large or even a medium on a short day. But even a L feels super cramped, ESPECIALLY climbing. The biggest thing I notice other than not feeling on the verge of going OTB all the time compared to me hardtail that has a 425mm reach and a 70mm stem is it's way easier to climb. I am so upright on a short bike that I can't manage front/rear traction. With the long bike I can lean forward and weight the front end while still having space to move my hips forward or backwards as needed.
I think wheelbase and tight corners falls into a similar category as low bb height. Definitely pros and cons, in theory most of the cons can be eliminated via technique, but how big of a change to riding style change any given person is willing to make in order to accommodate a geometry change just depends on the person. I can manage the long wheelbase but I am struggling with the BB height. 165mm cranks might be in my future...
BTW - I'm riding an XL 111, even though for height I should be on an L. The ape torso makes a big difference, as does overall size/weight. I hate feeling cramped on a bike - and I hate long stems putting me in front of the damn well. Meanwhile, a buddy of mine who's the same height but 50 pounds lighter and with a 3" longer inseam finds the 111 to be a pig and prefers a 5010 - which I find intolerably nervous and sketchy.
It's all give and take, I suppose.
I would love it if Ibis for example would sell the HD4 for list price, but at the same time keep selling the HD3 frame with full warranty for like 30% off...
Come on Shimano fix this please!
BTW has any on tried using Saint brake lines?
would that help?
As far as mineral oil, I'll take it anyday over the paint removing DOT brake fluid.
I currently have XT m8000s and they're the exact same to bleed as my m785s that they replaced.
They do suffer from random bite point syndrome, though. I bled them tonight and the oil was grey and had chunks of what looked like rubber in the oil. Bite point seems normal again.
I've been toying with the idea of getting some guide RSs but they're like twice the money. Think I'd rather try hopes at that point.
Also, they have a really well specd $5k version of this bike, it would probably be better they send that bike out for testing for the lack of sticker shock.
Reach is only one of many things taller people are struggling with. Actual Seat Tube Angle is probably more important though. This parameter should be around 74° for XL and larger.
Big deltas in geo over 2-4 years? Yeah, easy to suss out and feel. Anything in between in one's brain playing tricks.
Just try offset bushings or an angleset in your own bike
Jokes aside, I rode 2 bikes with almost the exact same geometry except one had slacker front and steeper seat tube and it cornered significantly better.
Never had that issue with my Summum.
This is an interesting one. @mikekazimer How did you ride those switchbacks? Did you roll them or did you do the front pivots as recommended by Ryan Leech a few weeks ago on this website? If you did the front wheel pivots, how does the longer front center make these harder to do? If you choose to not do the front wheel pivots, why not? If this was because you don't currently master this skill, how is this a shortcoming of the bike instead of rider? Lots of questions.
Turning around your front wheel means your weight is kind of over it, which is hardest if you're on a flat surface, with 65HA and a 35mm stem, etc.
Thinking of it, the Mondraker does look a bit like the BTR, with that small reinforcement tube near the head tube .
BTW, my GG Trail Pistol is better spec'd and almost 1/2 the price. Admittedly I built it frame up myself as well as wheels. But that is how I can stay in the sport anymore. Costs are out of control.
Also I think PB should include both the low(er) and high end builds for each review, compare/contrast performance and value of each versus each other.
>> Does this pricepont really account for that high of a perrcentage of mountain bike sales?
That’s only £300 more than a Santa Cruz here in the UK
At your local bike shop, you will get 20% off!
Ferrari 488 Spider: $87 per pound
I'll take the Ferrari.
Motorized? Gotta drive or ride for 90 minutes