March 25th 1983 and me and my big bro travel from Cape Hill Smethwick aka Bronx to the NEC Birmingham (money hidden in bottom of Adidas All Blacks) to see indoor BMX racing and freestyle. I even got Andy Ruffell to sign my Haro number plate at the time...He won the first ever BMX race in the UK at Redditch the year before, back then he rode a Mongoose which was the bike to have. Mongoose are now 30 years old and back on the track, check out their all new Eric Carter Signature Model, the Mongoose ECD…Andy Ruffell is now responsible for the MOBO Awards.
 History Lesson
More history lessons so pay attention, you might learn something. Skip Hess a drag racer started making bikes in 1974, was he gunning for arch rivals Diamond Back by naming it Mongoose Bikes? Pacific Cycles now own the big Goose to add into their portfolio which consists of Schwinn, GT Bicycles, Dyno, and Murray.
Back to the review. Now this bike review could be the shortest one I have ever done. All you need to look at is the spec of this bike which would be on the wish list of any riders out there. Then the price, I’ve often used the phrase, “You get a lot of bang for your buck”. For the ECD I had to invent another, “That’s a lot of FIREWORKS for you dollar”. This bike retails at £2,799.00, well under £3k for a World Cup standard race bike, you must read on..
 Mongoose EC-D
FORK: RockShox Boxxer Team with Motion Control Damping with High & Low Speed Compression Damping & Rebound Adjust, 203mm Travel. Who needs Air Boxers (£999 in 2007) anyway? These are what you should be buying anyway due to the price (£600rrp) and performance coupled with all that adjustability. Also note they are in White, this colour wasn’t available in the UK to buy on the high street. These were available in the States only or factory fitted to new bikes.
SHOCK: Fox DHX-5.0 Coil over with Piggyback Reservoir, Boost Valve, Adjustable Pro Pedal Damping, Adjustable Tuning Range, Preload and Rebound Adjust. With the demise of 5th Element, Fox are quickly moving into the No1 slot and for good reason too with resource like http://www.mojo.co.uk/ available to us mere mortals.
 Bars and Stem Combo
REAR DERAILLEUR: SRAM X-9 Derailleur mid cage, great shifting from the manufacturer that’s kicking the big “S” ass. Did you know the SRAM 07 X9 will be available in short cage!
FRONT RIGHT SHIFTER: SRAM X.9 Impulse trigger, again quality but wait till you see the 07 X9 which has many of the features that XO has..
FREEWHEEL: SRAM PG-990 12-26T 9 Speed. This should be your standard ratio, 12 is enough on any steep hill whilst that large 26t rear cog should help you pedal up to the uplift. Pro racers would run a PG950 12-23T for rapid fire changes meaning minimum loss of drive as your chain ain’t shifting up or down miles between cogs.
 The view from the cock pit
CHAIN: KMC Z-9900 in Silver, great chain just don’t know why they never used a SRAM chain considering their Mongoose Team is sponsored by SRAM, someone please explain this to me?
CRANKS: TruVativ Holzfeller with the Truvativ 38T Alloy Ring, perfect ratio sizing for UK racing, all spinning sweetly around a TruVativ Howitzer Team external bearing bottom bracket.
PEDALS: Funn Soljam Vipers Sealed version (riders own). http://www.funnmtb.com/
 Look it's a nice rear end
BRAKES: Avid Juicy 7’s Hydraulic Disc with Speed Dial Adjust (red twiddler) with 8" Avid Rotors are really giving Shimano and Hayes a good run for their money.
As this is Mongoose’s “Team Bike” they obviously deploy the top of the range Avid brakes. That red adjuster dial allows you to dial in the pad contact so your bite on the lever can be adjusted to your preference. You can even pop it off and place it under the brake lever for safe keeping! What I will say is if they wanted to drop the price even further (they don’t need to) then the Juicy 5’s are just as good, except you don’t get that red twiddler.
HUBS: Front Sun Ringle Abbah SOS 20 mm thru axle, 32H.
Rear Sun Ringle Abbah SOS 150x12 mm thru axle, 32H.
For any of you old XC heads out there you will know Ringle Hubs in the day were the bomb, as was the price tag. Mass production and increasing competition is all good news for you the consumer as you get improved products at a cheaper price. The real important factor here is the audible clicking noise from the rear hub, nice……
 Sun Rims and Kenda Tyres
RIMS: Sun MTX Team Blue 32H, we’ve all see Peaty on his red DT rims, how about the real boys colour “Blue”. These certainly turned heads when I rode on by…Sun make awesome rims in their whole range with the MTX being their flagship DH Racers rim as it’s welded together. The S Type is the pinned version, same weight just £17 cheaper each!
TYRES: Kenda 26x 2.5 Nevegal DH casing w/ Stick-E rubber are the best tyres Kenda make for DH and are definitely race ready. Kenda still need to do a lot of work to increase their range in a market dominated by Maxxis and Michelin.
HANDLE BARS: TruVativ Holzfeller 31.8mm clamp, 25 mm rise is TruVativ’s top line bar in the oversized for extra strength. (standard size is 25.4mm).
 Hanging out in a subway
STEM: TruVativ Holzfeller 31.8mm clamp, nice top clamp from big “T” in that flash smoke/silver finish but one main question: SRAM own RockShox and TruVativ so can someone tell me why they still haven’t released a TruVativ direct mount stem yet? Your missing a trick and vital sales here boys to the likes of http://www.sicusa.com/ and Funn.
GRIPS: WTB Technical Trail Grip, just before your ECD lands, order a set of Lock-Ons and take these off. We ride in the U.K and it’s often wet, hence lock-ons are a must.
HEADSET: FSA Orbit Extreme with deep insertion alloy cups that sit in the frame for extra strength. Cartridge bearings roll all day long and this unit is silky smooth. As with any bearings though, keep them shy of the jet wash.
 Multi pivot tastic
SEAT and POST: SDG Bel Air Super Tough Seat is strong enough. Too many peeps have purchased the XC styles to save weight and felt the pain, with out the gain. The seat post is the SDG I-Beam 2014 alloy post.
CHAIN DEVICE: MRP System 3 is the most race proven chain device out there once set up correctly which is easy to do. I did fall foul to bad maintenance though.
At a Midlands race some lad had lost his bike in practice and was desperate for a ride. I loaned him the ECD for 1 run in the mud whilst I commentated. He returned it and it was straight to my run, no time to jet wash her. That thick mud had built between the chain ring and plates. The chain couldn’t sit on the chain ring and started to slip under pedalling. Thus on muddy days, make sure you take a knife out of your Moms kitchen drawers and chop that mud away before your run.
Hand on heart your not getting much better than that component wise are you? You’d be happy to rock down the hill knowing 100% that whilst your in the cockpit, pressing those controls, the instruments around you will work, be durable and increase your performance.
 Sign here please
The above “Ain’t worth Jack” unless you bolt that onto a chassis that’s worthy of parts before you. The Mongoose Free Drive Downhill frame does just that.
Made from 6061 Aluminium with a Patented Floating Bottom Bracket.
Mongoose are on the money with replaceable dropouts yet some companies still don’t make replaceable dropouts on their frames, why? Fixed into place by 2x 5mm Allen keys these stay secured throughout and would take less than 2mins to swap out if ever required..
Travel can be varied very simply by unbolting the 6mm bolts on the rear of the shock mount to allow you adjustability between 7.9“ and 8.4” of travel. Not much variance, though would be welcome when racing in the winter on shorter travel or on a less demanding course.
150 x 12mm Bolt Thru Axle is now the only way, allowing your spokes to be dished wider at the hub flange and symmetrically meaning a stronger wheel as your using a wider rim. Narrower frames at the rear mean the drive side spokes are almost vertical in path up to the rim. Whilst the other side is angled up more, thus almost lop sided, clear? Disc Mount only, V brakes are now for BMX only.
 URT?
The first thing that strikes you about this frame is the down tube.. Arthur Daley “Cut and Shut” came from one admirer. Now not everyone was the greatest fan of the V10 at first with that Gerard Depardieu nose/hump on the top tube, you all soon grew to love that frame though didn't you? Same for me with the Goose, it grew fond of each other, often alone hand on grips in a secluded wood somewhere, sssshhhhh....
Clever how it runs straight from the head tube down to the shock, straight as a die. Less flexing on the shock and maximum metalwork up against the bulk head of the head tube for serious strength and no additional gusset. Also note it stops that dreaded “Clank” noise as there is now no chance of your bottom crown for your Boxxers donking into your frame.
 Another look at that linkage
The seat tube has been sawn off from the BB after 7 inches. Frame rigidity is now supplied by two plates, promoted forwards, covering the rear shock it convexes out which gives your knees something to press down against, allowing you to rail it in the berms full chat.. Just make sure you cut down that seat tube as you don’t want it fouling the rear shock do you?
Now for the magic regards the rear suspension and the pivots…FREEDRIVE. How best to describe this variation on GT's iDrive suspension design system???
For starters it is a floating bottom bracket. I’ll talk negative first then positive. Brake lockout is maximised as the bottom bracket moves. Thus the saddle to pedal measurement is always varying during your run. Great news is the BB moves very, very little in the ratio of things as it hangs for a separate frame extension. Usually your BB is welded to the bottom of your front triangle. Look closely here and you’ll see there is a front end, middle section and a rear end!
Now clock the top of the interrupted seat tube is the a pivot from which the “Dog Bone “ pivot curls up, to secure the rear of the shock unit. Chain stay length is unaffected and remains static, reducing pedal kick backs and the unfriendly bob that’s a speed dampener that can be brought on by differing chain tensions.
 Go on swing a leg over
So what’s all that mean to you? This bike is fast outta the blocks, pedalling off the start or out or corners, stomping on those pedals, dropping the clutch means instant engagement through the chassis to the drive train., whiplash.. In short it’s a mix of the two of the best pedal and suspension designs out there, I-Drive at the front and almost a DW link at the rear. Comprenda?
The Orange front end to Pearl White colour system works really well and is pleasing to the eye as it is separated by a Celtic tribe tattoo style pattern. That along with the square-to-round section top tube that forms back to the seat stay with a lovely gusset that holds Carters signature bonks this up the model stakes.
Geometry (Two Frame sizes only).
Frame Size S/M M/L
Head Angle 64.5 - 64.5
Seat Angle 66 - 66
Top Tube 23 - 24.1
 Paton - Hopton - A Rezurgence photo
With a recommended retail price of £2,699.00 this is the bike to buy on that budget. Quality frame and parts that are an awesome combination for you to ride, race and win on. If you turn up at the next race onboard one, I’ll know you will be happy that you have made the right choice.
Keep an eye out for the Mongoose Pro Team Riders.
DH - Eric Carter and Andrew Neethling.
BMX - Simon Tabron, Tim “Fuzzy” Hall, Eric Rupe, Steve Mcann and Cameron White.
Free Riders - Aaron Peters and Jim DeChamp.
If you missed the Eric Carter interview, with questions poised by you the readers on the Descent-World forum, here’s the link…click here
Many thanks to Dave Jones at Hot Wheels for the loan of this great bike. http://www.hot-wheels.co.uk/
Stay Unclipped.
Si Paton..
http://www.descent-gear.com/
Boxxer Replacement Maxles Instock
Cheers.
Si..
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