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Mongoose Massif review

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Mongoose Pro Massif review.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time reviewing this bike but I feel like it merits the time in case some one in the future considers buying one of these. I’m also not going to make any broad claims concerning the quality of Mongoose Pro bikes or Pacific bikes.

I only rode the Massif about ten times before it broke and I can’t say I really experienced everything it has to offer, but I think I learned enough for this assesment. I’m including all the Mongoose Pro Hotlinks bikes in this review, the Sommit, Triumph and Massif, since they are all the same frame and probably handle similarly.

The Mongoose Hotlinks design in interesting to look at. It is a 4 bar with a true horst linkage, but instead of the standard swing arm coming out around the bottom bracket the hotlinks design uses a complex series of pivots so the chainstay moves more vertically instead of pivoting. The propaganda says this is supposed to create a virtual pivot point and somehow stop the frame from bobbing. Someone needs to tell them it didn’t work.

The bike bobbed as bad as any full suspension I have ever ridden. Much worse then the Schwinn Rocket 88 I used to ride. If you were as smooth as possible on the pedals then you might be able to keep the bob down to a less annoying level. Anytime you start putting some pressure on the pedals it was like being on a boat.

Because of the bob it was very difficult to climb on the Massif. It would seem to load up on the rear shock on an incline. I felt like I had to struggle to keep my weight forward and the front wheel down. I think this led to back pain. Hills that I had once been able to climb I couldn’t even get half way up. Bumps would stop me dead in my tracks and sometimes even on a non technical climb it would be impossible to continue forward momentum.

My next problem was a low bottom bracket compounded with the suspension bob would cause me to be constantly bashing my pedals and crank arms, usually on small obstacles on the trail, but sometimes just on the ground.

As I stated it seemed like when climbing I would load up the rear end, and it seemed like I always on the back of the bike, what isn’t clear is why my hands were hurting. Seems like I was carrying to much weight on both my hands and on my butt, it didn’t really add up. For some reason I was never very stable on the Massif, I fell off the bike several times, usually for no real reason, I had trouble riding technical stuff and staying on the bike. Once I fell off just by standing up.

Fit and Finish on the bike was sub part, the paint had no clearcoat and scratched extremely easily. The stickers weren’t sprayed either, and were all starting to peel off after a month. The welds looked beefy, but I think the bike suffered from to many welds and not enough solid metal.

The components spec’ed with my 1300 dollar Massif had good and bad points. The good: RS Duke front fork, it seemed to be a solid performer and I am currently using it on my new bike. The Truvativ Stylo cranks seem fine. The Magura stoppers work well, as well as the wheels and the XT rear derailleur is a solid unit. Titec Seatpost, stem and bar seem all right. The bad: Deore front derailleur sucks, can’t shift under the least bit of pressure. The Fizik Nisene seat was real uncomfortable. The Deore shifter pods feel cheap and don’t have a real smooth action.

Whoever assembled the bike didn’t do to well. The crank bolts had been over tightened and no amount of force could break them, they had to be drilled out. The cables were all cut off right next to their binders and left without a cap. The cable housings were all cut too short, as well as the rear break housing. The rear suspension bolts didn’t have any loctite and loosened up a lot. All minor things but stuff that shouldn’t be on a new bike.

I would like to try to include something good in this review, but right now I can’t really think of anything.

Finally it broke at the swingarm pivot on the seat tube. I was surprised having never broken a frame before, and after only owning the bike for two months. Yes I am a fat guy who rides a bike pretty hard, but I don’t do anything crazy, I consider myself lucky that it broke on a flat easy section of trail early in the ride. It could have been bad if it went on a downhill. Pacific customer support wasn’t too supportive saying I needed to go to a dealer. I’m not sure if my frame was defective and had a bad weld, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

To sum up my review avoid this bike.