Mondraker’s top end Foxy Carbon trail bike has seen a total revamp for 2018, with a stiffer and lighter single-ring only frame, totally revised rear suspension plus the option to adjust head angle and chainstay length to suit your preferences.
It’s a fitting time for a complete refresh as the Foxy hits 15 years old this year. The big changes are in the frame, with thinner wall carbon tubing helping to drop weight while revised profiles are said to improve stiffness. Dropping front mech compatibility has allowed a much stiffer rear triangle, while Boost 148 hub spacing should help wheel stiffness as well. The rear suspension’s pivots have been boosted in size to 15mm with commensurately larger diameter bearings for extra durability.
The bike now uses a trunnion mounted metric sized shock that ditches bushings for bearings at the upper link. That link is now made in three pieces, with a carbon centre section that helps drop some weight. The rear triangle is attached with a clevis style mount that sandwiches the shock link between two bearings on either side for extra stiffness – and theoretically improved suspension response.
Longer travel and tweaked suspension
Talking of suspension, the Foxy still uses the Zero multi-link system, with the shock sandwiched between the two short links that connect the front and rear of the bike. Rear travel has been boosted to 150mm from the 140mm of the previous model and that’s paired with 150mm up front, except on the harder hitting XR which has 160mm up front.
The kinematics have been tweaked to work better with the new breed of metric sized shocks from RockShox and Fox and Mondraker says it’s probably the bike they’ve spent the most time tweaking the suspension on.
Unlike most manufacturers, Mondraker isn’t harping on about their new bike being longer and more stable than ever before. In fact, the reach of the Foxy hasn’t changed in years. That’s not because Mondraker is behind the times, quite the opposite in fact. The brand was an early pioneer of using a much longer front centre paired to a much shorter stem – in the case of a size Large Foxy, 500mm and 30mm respectively – which they called Forward Geometry. For comparison, most modern 150-160mm trail and enduro machines have a reach in the region of 460mm.
It’s possible to adjust the head angle to a degree either side of the stock 66º with an angle adjusting headset, while the chainstay length can be set at 425mm or 435mm with a flippable chip like that first seen on the longer travel Dune enduro bike. The effective seat angle is also a degree steeper than before at 75º.
There will be four bikes in the range, with the top Foxy Carbon RR SL model getting a lighter grade of ‘Stealth Air’ carbon, tipping the scales at a claimed 2.4kg for the frameset and 12.1kg for the complete bike. It comes with a full complement of shiny kit, with a SRAM X01 Eagle 12spd drivetrain, Shimano XTR brakes and Fox Factory 34 FIT4 fork and DPX2 shock. At £7,699 it’ll require some deep pockets however.
The Foxy Carbon XR is intended as the hardest hitting bike in the range, with a coil sprung RockShox SuperDeluxe rear shock and a Pike RCT3 fork with 160mm of travel. Again, there are 12 gears courtesy of a SRAM GX Eagle groupset and stopping is via Shimano XT brakes. It’s a claimed 13.6kg and will cost £5,399.
The Foxy Carbon RR model gets Fox Performance suspension, GX Eagle gearing and a Mavic XA wheelset for £4,499 and tips the scales at 13.1kg, while the entry to the range is the Foxy Carbon R at £3,799. It uses a SRAM NX 11spd drivetrain with a Sunrace 11-46T cassette, a RockShox Revelation fork and Deluxe RL air shock. Claimed weight is 134.6kg.
All the bikes in the range now feature 30mm rims but in a move that goes against fashion, they use tyres in the region of 2.2-2.4″ in width, going against the trend for fatter 2.6″ rubber.
Availability is likely to be around September this year and we’re doing our very best to get one in for test even sooner.
