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Further to previous threads I sold my Transition Sentinel (loved that bike) and picked up a Mondraker Dune R ebike to help with recovery from the latest injury (bulged L4 and L5 discs). Although I’ve not actually got back to how I was last June when I broke my collarbone (now plated) and then subsequent (but unrelated) appendix / small part of bowel removal.
I still have a 2022 carbon Top Fuel and a hardtail for non motor assisted stuff once I’m more recovered and back is in a better place.
Dune is a 170/165mm travel light Ebike with the Bosch SX motor, 400wh battery and comes in at 20kg pretty much. Full carbon frame, Fox 38 performance forks, Float X shock, GX mech, Nx shifter and cassette, own brand finishing bits and E13 wheels. Tyres are sensible - DHR2 in DD casing rear, a Assegai front in Exo+ / maxxgrip.
I have a few things I’m changing:
Brand X carbon bar going on (like the shape of it)
Deathgrips (standard grips are very thin)
Maven Bases to replace DB8s
One up v3 180mm dropper to replace the standard 150mm. Wish I could fit a bigger dropper on but seatpost insertion won’t allow it.
Change of fork graphics as they’re very boring
Setup tyres tubeless as they appear to have tubes in at the moment
Change the massive Kiox 500 screen for a Purion 400 which is better protected / less daft a size. I know I could run without but until I get used to it I’d find it useful. Not bothered about using it for navigation as I have an edge 830 or Fenix 7 for that. Plus I’m more a trail centre / off piste sessioning sort of rider.
Nice that. Agree about the fork graphics, are you going silver or red? Or a combination of both?
Nice that. Agree about the fork graphics, are you going silver or red? Or a combination of both?
The red decals I can find look a bit rank to me - silver ok but boring. Considering going a bit wild and not matching anything instead 🤣
That's looks fab Joe. They are such nicely resolved bikes. I was looking at getting a Dune or a Crafty as my first ebike (some of which was because my LBS stocks them and I wanted to support them as they've been great). I ended up with something else becaise of a combo of the SX (v CX) motor but mainly dropper insertion esp as I'm a dwarf from the hips down.
Great spec as well. My riding bud just bought a Zendit and he's absolutely loving that.
Good luck with your recovery!
Nice. I have a Norco Fluid with the same motor. Really like it... can't imagine wanting more power!
One up v3 180mm dropper to replace the standard 150mm. Wish I could fit a bigger dropper on but seatpost insertion won’t allow it.
What size frame is it and how many years old?
Unless it's a medium or below it's absolutely unforgivable that it ships with a 150mm dropper and only takes 180mm. I though the old Trek Slashes were the only bikes in recent memory which had that flaw.
mainly dropper insertion
Yeah, that pierced/interrupted seat-tube puts me off too - otherwise they seem great
Mine has the SX motor - I don’t normally take lunch at work but I grabbed 46 mins of riding at lunchtime today. In that time I covered 15km at around 19km average speed. And that was going to abolish common area with a few little descents on it and sessioning maybe 8 of them before pedalling home, up a bit of a drag with a headwind. Lower back so far seems ok with it as I didn’t push a load of watts myself (average 136) which was exactly the reason for picking this up.
my medium ships with a dropper that I think you can set between 120-150mm drop. That’s going straight on eBay as soon as I’ve fitted the 180mm Oneup. From calculations it looks like I can run the full 180mm drop due to the compact post dimensions. I did look at the 210mm (v2 or v3) but even at 190mm it just wouldn’t go due to the length of the lower post. Having the shock go through the seat tube is clearly the cause. Hopefully should be alright - I rode with a 180mm drop post for years - although the 210mm was nice on super steep stuff. Could never run more as the Sentinel has a 29er rear wheel so you end up bashing against that as the suspension compresses.
Having done a quick ride I need to play about with handlebar control positions a bit and setup the suspension soonest. Would say it didn’t feel like 170/165mm travel as it stands - setup too hard for my weight (78kgs / I’m 5’9).
Had 2 goes on it and I’m sold! So far it’s letting me do some bits of off-road on small local trails without tensing my lower back up having to put a lot of pressure through the pedals.
Using eco on the flat is fine - then on the steeper climbs whacking it into turbo. Not really using the 2 settings inbetween. I haven’t found anything I can’t cycle up yet. Brilliant for sessioning little DH bits without worrying you are wasting the elevation.
Actual dust on the trails today - perfect for working back towards a bit of cycling.
What I would say is this bike really wants to be sent down something fast and rocky - what it isn’t is flicky / poppy / manually on more tame trails like my Top Fuel.
The above picture makes me feel like buying you a Kickstand.😉
As in don’t lie your bike on the floor or it looks like a hefty thing? If the former it’s going to get scratched / bashed - it’s a bike
Just thought I’d update here - I’m absolutely loving the Dune so far. Now ridden it at a few places - Leigh Woods off piste in Bristol, Bourton Combe on the edge of Bristol, and went to Towberrow on the Mendips yesterday. It’s fantastic - my back seems to be slowly improving but by bit - if this continues I hope to be able to use the Top Fuel a bit in a few months time and I’m going to try and ease back into some turbo training.
Ive been playing about with the suspension - input in a 0.6 volume spacer but going to change it for a 0.8 (biggest the fox chart suggests I can get away with) as I’m bottoming too much (180psi in the shock at the moment).
Until Rowberrow I thought the fork setup was ok but I bottomed it hard about 3 times yesterday on some jumps to flat. Going to up the pressure a bit and see how that goes - I don’t have any fork tokens to add and fox volume tokens seem to be unnecessarily expensive for small plastic things.
I switched the handlebar for my favourite shaped carbon one with the seat grips, running the dropper at 170mm with a different lever, tyres are now tubeless setup and I’ve got a Maven fitted to the front. Need to do the rear but it’s going to be a fiddle and need a bleed so I’ve been putting that off so far. The DB8 on the back isn’t actually too bad to be fair to it.
I do have a plan to pickup a Vivid Ultimate air shock for the back at some point - need to sell my Vivid Ultimate coil first from the Sentinel. For me the Dune isn’t progressive enough to run a coil in my view.
The SX seems a great motor for me so far - when riding on my own I’m mostly using tour+ I’d say - just using higher power for steep climbs to keep pressure off my lower back. At Rowberrow I was riding with a mate who has a Trek Rail so I did use turbo / emtb more and smashed through 80% of the battery in 21km / 775m of climbing. The powermore range extender just arrived so when I go out again with someone on a full power ebike I’ll probably take that with me just in case.
