Well i thought i'd give it a run out this morning. It was bloody cold that's for sure, it was also sodding muddy, but hey, that's UK in the winter so we go with it.
Sitting on the bike the rear shock felt pretty firm, this was to be a pattern for the ride, i felt overall it was a little harsh, but i know my mate who's ridden it more than me said it was sweet, so maybe that's more me than anything.
The riding position is nice, the Medium feels pretty long with the 'forward geometry' (more on that later).
There's about 5 power modes i think from Eco, to Tour+, emtb, Turbo and off. I spent a chunk of the time in Tour+, mostly due to battery anxiety lol. Although i was never planning on being 20 miles from home so wasn't a massive concern in reality.
The Code RSC ultimates felt exactly how they should, although the rear needs a new set of pads or a bit of a bleed, just a little soft for me, but i'll sort that tomorrow before we head to Cwmcarn.
The gearing, well that was the highlight for me, the AXS gears are just lovely, like really really nice. I don't dislike cable gears, but this stuff is just smoother, nicer, sweeter, yeah massively impressed with AXS
The motor on the DuneXR is also on the right side of lovely actually, pretty impressed with the BoschSX, it was quiet, smooth, really nice. You could feel the differences in power modes really easily and Turbo when tested was plenty of grunt for anything and everything you want. There's a slight bit of over-run which can catch you out just a little bit. This was mostly at slower speeds and tight nadgery turns between trees/features etc. Not a massive issue, just a little 'different'
The cut-out of power and the limiter at 15.5mph was another sweet spot for this motor, it was not very intrusive at all when it kicked out of the power and you barely noticed any pedalling issues compared to some bikes which feel a bit like riding in treacle. Nice again.
The handling, well none of this will come as much of a shock to anyone who's ever read anything i've written about bikes, but i wasn't quite feeling it. It's as much a 'me' thing as it's a bike thing, i don't seem to get far enough forward which makes the front end quite sketchy at time and doesn't really bring me a lot of confidence in the front end of the bike. I've seen it with Birds, Status etc, this sort of longer front end bike doesn't suit my style and whilst it's not a massive issue, i don't feel i can fully commit to things on it.
It seems the ride was 27km
IMG_20250213_110342 by
Steve Weeks, on Flickr
Average speed of 18.1kmh
When i got home i had 27% power left in the tank, which isn't a lot, but with a 400w batter it's always going to eat the power. This was massively noticable when hitting turbo mode or even Emtb, it smashes through the battery at a massive rate of knots...
Overall, this is a £12,000 bike... Is that worth 4 of my Orbea Rises, nope... i'm not even sure it's worth 2 of them... I'd argue for the Rise that i paid £3000 for and if i threw an AXS groupset and a fork and shock i may be at say £6000 and i'd have a bike that was far far better for me than the Mondraker.
IMG_20250213_095314 by
Steve Weeks, on Flickr
