Well i thought i'd give it a run out this morning. It was bloody cold that's for sure, it was also sodding muddy, but hey, that's UK in the winter so we go with it.
Sitting on the bike the rear shock felt pretty firm, this was to be a pattern for the ride, i felt overall it was a little harsh, but i know my mate who's ridden it more than me said it was sweet, so maybe that's more me than anything.
The riding position is nice, the Medium feels pretty long with the 'forward geometry' (more on that later).
There's about 5 power modes i think from Eco, to Tour+, emtb, Turbo and off. I spent a chunk of the time in Tour+, mostly due to battery anxiety lol. Although i was never planning on being 20 miles from home so wasn't a massive concern in reality.
The Code RSC ultimates felt exactly how they should, although the rear needs a new set of pads or a bit of a bleed, just a little soft for me, but i'll sort that tomorrow before we head to Cwmcarn.
The gearing, well that was the highlight for me, the AXS gears are just lovely, like really really nice. I don't dislike cable gears, but this stuff is just smoother, nicer, sweeter, yeah massively impressed with AXS
The motor on the DuneXR is also on the right side of lovely actually, pretty impressed with the BoschSX, it was quiet, smooth, really nice. You could feel the differences in power modes really easily and Turbo when tested was plenty of grunt for anything and everything you want. There's a slight bit of over-run which can catch you out just a little bit. This was mostly at slower speeds and tight nadgery turns between trees/features etc. Not a massive issue, just a little 'different'
The cut-out of power and the limiter at 15.5mph was another sweet spot for this motor, it was not very intrusive at all when it kicked out of the power and you barely noticed any pedalling issues compared to some bikes which feel a bit like riding in treacle. Nice again.
The handling, well none of this will come as much of a shock to anyone who's ever read anything i've written about bikes, but i wasn't quite feeling it. It's as much a 'me' thing as it's a bike thing, i don't seem to get far enough forward which makes the front end quite sketchy at time and doesn't really bring me a lot of confidence in the front end of the bike. I've seen it with Birds, Status etc, this sort of longer front end bike doesn't suit my style and whilst it's not a massive issue, i don't feel i can fully commit to things on it.
It seems the ride was 24.1km
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54324733481_baa4db9bc3_4k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54324733481_baa4db9bc3_4k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2qLusBT ]IMG_20250213_110342[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Average speed of 18.1kmh
When i got home i had 27% power left in the tank, which isn't a lot, but with a 400w batter it's always going to eat the power. This was massively noticable when hitting turbo mode or even Emtb, it smashes through the battery at a massive rate of knots...
Overall, this is a £12,000 bike... Is that worth 4 of my Orbea Rises, nope... i'm not even sure it's worth 2 of them... I'd argue for the Rise that i paid £3000 for and if i threw an AXS groupset and a fork and shock i may be at say £6000 and i'd have a bike that was far far better for me than the Mondraker.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54324951628_a2b64ef8b8_4k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54324951628_a2b64ef8b8_4k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2qLvzt3 ]IMG_20250213_095314[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Sitting on the bike the rear shock felt prettyad firm, this was to be a pattern for the ride, i felt overall it was a little harsh, but i know my mate who's ridden it more than me said it was sweet, so maybe that's more me than anything.
I had a non electric Dune a few years ago and I found it needed at least 30% sag to get the best out of it, absolute flying machine when going fast/flat out but wasn't the best for general trail riding
Imo torso length/wingspan has a big impact on liking longer front centre. As someone with short legs I previously had to compromise on length so the bike wasn't much too tall. Now with shorter seat tubes more of us can find a bike with an appropriate reach even if it means nominally sizing down. A 6'4 mate rides the same size reach bike a me at 5'10 but with his seat and bars much higher.
Sitting on the bike the rear shock felt prettyad firm, this was to be a pattern for the ride, i felt overall it was a little harsh, but i know my mate who's ridden it more than me said it was sweet, so maybe that's more me than anything.
I had a non electric Dune a few years ago and I found it needed at least 30% sag to get the best out of it, absolute flying machine when going fast/flat out but wasn't the best for general trail riding
Due to the fact it was bloody freezing along with muddy and a slightly tricky shock position etc to check, i've not done any fiddling with it yet. I will before Cwmcarn on Sunday though.
I'm running 30% sag on my Dune and it's feels very nice. I came from a bike with quite firm back end though so it was always gonna feel good. It's not sofa plush like a Spesh Levo but then I don't like that, I want more feedback.
Long front centre wise, I found it easy to adapt to that expected. I wasn't on anything that short before but this is 25mm.longer.. It just feels great though.
Can't fathom paying £12k for the XR when the RR is less than half that.
They are smoking crack at those RRP's. Makes my Vala seem quite good value.
I swung a leg over one at leisure lakes, not a fan of the short stems, after years of being on 40mm, it just felt plain odd.
Ohlins can often feel quite overdamped, setup for higher speed trails rather than the slow techier stuff we have in the UK.
Yeah i don't think the terrain suited the suspension, but it was all i had yesterday as i was only local. I think at Cwmcarn this weekend will be more interesting, but that also depends on whether i get to ride the Mondraker or if i'm on the Rise for the day, i'd expect i'll probably be on both over the course of the day.
the RRP is eye-watering and you can certainly see where some of it has gone with expensive bouncers and gears.. but then the rest is a bit average.
I also never mentioned the headset cable routing, which i blocked out of my mind but would be a massively deciding factor in purchase. It's not that i cannot swap and bleed stuff, but it seems a little pointless to me. Admittedly the Code Stealth do lend themselves to headset routing as they sit a lot tighter angle to the bars.
Not a fan of headset routing either but in 3 years on my last bike I never remo9ved the rear brake so I should be fine.
Whilst the XR has a bit better spec, the RR has GX T-Type wireless & Ohlins F&R. Admittedly RRP of that was £10k but as said, discounts are big on that model!
The boy LOVED the DuneXR "so playful and fun" said he. Everything was ACE.
He got 40km of vert riding, with 27% left in battery... but it had been turned off or in Eco for the majority lol. That's just how he rides things.
We're going to set the suspension up a little tonight/tomorrow for Weds riding, but he's happy enough as it stands. I think the only thing he'd change early doors is the price-tag as the £12000 means he's got 0 chance of getting one.
The majority of his vid/footage from the day isn't getting posted though i'm afraid as there's a lot of line choices he picked up throughout the day and he doesn't want to give them away to the Insta race crowd.
Out of interest, what does the Dune weigh roughly?
Sub 20 apparently but i've not weighed it so cant say. He says it's a lot lighter than my Rise.
This is what £12(.5)k gets you from Spesh - fortunately coming with a £5k discount off that. Just waiting for Ridewrap and Invisiframe. XX AXS, AXA post, Fox 38, Fox X2, Code Stealth Ultimates, carbon bars, carbon cranks (not shown here), carbon Roval Traverse (lifetime warranty). Full fat though - 700wh and supposedly coming in at 22.5kg. You'd think it would be lighter tbh. Buzzing for it though