If you’re planning to buy a bike and have researched about them on the internet, you must have come across the brand Mongoose. But you’re now wondering whether Mongoose bikes are good or not. If you haven’t come across the name Mongoose, don’t be embarrassed. The world of bikes is crowded with brands. It’s practically impossible to know about them all unless you’re a professional cyclist or make a living at the biggest bike store in town.
Dinna fash, our Scottish Highlander friends would say. Trust a Scottish Highlander when it comes to bikes—they love cycling and have some of the world’s best mountain cycling circuits. That makes Mongoose bikes a popular brand in that part of the world. Taking advantage of this, we asked some of our cyclist friends from Scotland to tell us what they’d want to know about Mongoose bikes. We’ll address all the issues they raised one by one to give you an idea of the Mongoose brand, its history, performance record and much more.
Let’s start with history, shall we?
History of Mongoose Bikes
We’re talking about the brand’s past because it has a rich history. The brand has managed to survive the tough competition in the bike market over the last 45 years. Founded in 1975 in California, the brand was originally sold by BMX Products, Inc. It is now marketed through Pacific Cycle, one of the biggest brands in the world of bikes today.
We don’t want to make this a history lesson. But to give you an idea of how rich the brand’s history is, Mongoose had arguably the greatest BMX race teams in the world at one point. By the 1980s, the Mongoose bike team had legends like Danny Oakley and Bryan Curnel on its roster.
Now that you have a fair idea about the background of the brand, we’ll tell you what it offers in terms of performance on the road.
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How do Mongoose bikes perform?
This is the most critical of all questions, and we’ll tackle it head-on.
One of our Scottish friends bought a Mongoose XR-Pro mountain bike in 2019. His first impression was that the bike looked great. Let’s face it — you want your bike to look good. People designing bikes at Mongoose know this. Perhaps that is why the brand has launched some of the best looking bikes in the mountain and highland bikes segment over the last few years.
The Mongoose XR-Pro has beefy handlebars, like the ones you find on premium mountain bikes which cost upwards of $3,000. Its Zoom branded stem looks great and gives a vibration-free handling experience, a quality that most professional cyclists look for. The bike’s Mongoose branded grooves feature a honeycomb design to give you a good grip on the handlebars. The bike comes with alloy brake lever housings with polished brake levers. The Sram X4 shifter on the bike not only functions perfectly but also adds style to your bike.
The bike has a decent Coilover rear suspension system that works perfectly for leisure cross country biking. Rated at 180 pounds per square inch, this is more than a match to the suspension systems you find on premium bikes. To give you the safest possible ride, Mongoose has installed 160 millimetres ProMax disc brakes with a quick-release skewer. The bike’s SR SunTour superpower flow crankset performs decently in cross country settings.
To sum it up, the Mongoose XR-Pro mountain bike offers excellent performance at a very affordable price and with steller looks.
This performance review holds up for most of the bikes that Mongoose offers. We asked some of our friends who use other models of Mongoose bikes if this conclusion was correct. Most of them responded in the affirmative.
The only complaint we’ve heard so far is that the pedals on Mongoose bikes are too small for some people, which makes peddling uncomfortable for them. The brand offers some great replacements which are easily available in the market and don’t cost much. So if you like large pedals on your bike, upgrade it with larger ones. But do so only after you’ve tried the original pedals.
Given that Mongoose bikes cost significantly less than other mountain bikes in the market, getting a few upgrades doesn’t hurt.
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Do you get what you pay for?
The Mongoose XR-Pro that our friend bought in 2019 cost him $399 at a local store. With the great review that we’ve received from him for the model, we can safely say that you get value for money when you buy a Mongoose bike.
In fact, Mongoose scores highly in the market in the quality versus price debate. The components Mongoose uses on its bike are either produced within the company or procured from reputed manufacturers. Because the company makes a very large number of bikes, economies of scale kick in. As a result, Mongoose can offer you prices that most in the market can’t beat.
So if you are on a tight budget but do not want to compromise with quality and comfort, go for a Mongoose mountain bike. The brand offers a large variety of models on its website, and you can choose the one that offers a good balance between your budget and requirements.
Don’t worry; we’ll list some of the best models for you.
Top Mongoose bike models
When you’re buying a bike, the first thing you should do is identify your requirements. Do you want a bike for off-road conditions or one to ride to school every day? Mongoose offers bikes of both kinds. The department store line of Mongoose bicycles is for those looking to ride on pavements in the city or town, on their way to school or gym. The brand’s line of high-end BMX models is for cyclists who want to ride in cross country conditions.
If you are looking for models in the department store line, go for the proven ones, including Mongoose Excursion bike (24-inch wheel, 21 speeds) and Mongoose Ardor bike (27.5-inch wheels, 7 speeds). While the Excursion bike comes with 21-speed twist shifters, the slightly costlier Ardor bike is equipped with a 7-speed Pro Rush derailleur. Those looking for hardtail and race models can choose from the Title series of BMX race bikes offered by Mongoose. If you watch BMX racing, you would’’ve seen professional bikers use Mongoose bikes.
At this point, we’ve told you everything there is to know about Mongoose bikes. If you’re serious about mountain biking, buy one without a second thought.