Posted by Paul Hoyle on 9th Apr 2024
Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to receive an invite to Mondraker Bikes HQ in southern Spain to test a new bike they’d been working on. A tough chore I know, especially in the cold depths of a UK winter!
A few years ago I bought myself a mechanical Mondraker Dune, and suffice to say, it's still one of my favourite bikes i'd ever owned. It was an absolute beast of an Enduro bike, combining hard hitting componentry with its flawlessly designed lightweight frame, I found it significantly more playful than its peers and the ideal choice for sessioning and seeking out enduro tracks. Given how much I enjoyed my Dune I was itching to see if Mondraker had done it again.
Once in Spain and sat within the futuristic fortress of Mondraker's HQ, where the design team revealed the stunning colour schemes of the new Mondraker Dune range. Once everyone had got their obligatory new bike strokes and brake-lever pressing out of their system the Mondraker Design team then set about explaining how they'd captured the essence of the original Dune, by replicating two key characteristics; big hitting capabilities and playfulness.
The first characteristic on the checklist to be detailed was the hard hitting nature of the bike. During the initial walkthrough of the bike, it was clear they'd put together a hard hitting platform, with 170mm up front (180mm on XR) and 165m at the rear. Aditionally, four pot brakes combined with 2 x 200mm rotors and a heavy duty set of Maxxis tyres.
Second to be ticked off on the checklist was playfulness. The lighter the bike the more playful it should be, and with that in mind the latest lightweight SX motor system from Bosch was utilised along with the development of a super light carbon frame to accompany it (2.650g).
Next up was selecting the wheelset, with playfulness at the core of the bikes design there was only ever one option, the Mullet! With 29 inch wheels leading out front and the smaller 27.5 inch wheel at the back the Dune is super agile, jumping and twisting through tight turns.
After chucking on our riding kit, we headed out to a rugged mountainous range, just northwest of Alicante. In typical Mondraker fashion, everything was set up meticulously; bikes were neatly arranged, suspension dialled in, names printed. After a little fine tuning, we set off, at pace up the first incline.
During the first section of that climb those unfamiliar with the new SX motor were given a brief introduction, as you do use it in a slightly different manner to the Bosch CX motor (the following article from ebike-mtb explains the key differences in detail and is well worth a read). Once familiarised with th SX system, we soon made short work of the steep technical climbs encountered throughout the day.
With the climbing taken care of, courtesy of Bosch, one big question remained, could the Dune still descend like a demon? Well, let's start by providing some context to the type of terrain we were dealing with…. dry, dusty, steep technical rock gardens, drop-offs, flowy singletrack, bomb holes and jumps. Yes it sounds like heaven, and not only that, almost all of the tracks we rode included all of those trail features within each run.
As we were there all day, we attacked a few of our favourite tracks for a second time, and with more speed and more confidence. Which brings me to the last run of the day. By now fully educated on the new Dune and ready to push the boundaries, there were two key sections in the last run that really demonstrated the true capability of the Dune.
Still raring to go, we all lined up in some loose order of rider capability and rode hard straight out of the gates in a train-like formation. First up was a tasty rock garden that everyone flew through, picking out different lines. On a less capable bike I really doubt we all would have been as ambitious and confident, as the terrain was really gnarly in parts. However, with the Dune’s large suspension platform it allowed us to pick different variations of the track as it remained super stable at speed, despite the continuous big hits.
Next up was a rutted bridleway-like section (wide track with multiple line choices). Here, the best plan of attack was to stay nimble on the bike and avoid the ruts as much as possible, as they were often too deep and narrow to escape pedal-snag. Here the Dune excelled as it encouraged adjustments on the fly through subtle bar-pull movements to manoeuvre between the differing line choices. This unique level of responsiveness not always present in with bigger-hitting E-MTBs, and created an environment in which both speed and control could be maintained in equal measure.
In summary, after a full day's riding, the Mondraker Dune lived up to expectation and took everything I threw at it. For me, Mondraker has succeeded in replicating the spirit of Dune, and in doing so, has created one seriously capable enduro focused E-MTB.
The Mondraker Dune range starts at £6795 with 0% finance available and delivery throughout the UK. To find out more, and to see the latest availability, please check out the following link and of course if you have any questions just get in touch: 01254 814238 / contact us. Also if you want to see the bike in the flesh, we currently have a Mondraker Dune built up in our showroom.
