2010 marks nine years in business for Mondraker, Spain's best-known bike brand. Its profile has been raised considerably over the last year thanks to Fabien Barel's successful season on board the Mondraker Summum DH bike, while in the UK the brand picked up a distribution deal with Silverfish.
Mondraker designer Cesar Rojo (an accomplished DH racer himself) has clearly been busy, with a whole slew of new-for-2010 bikes in the range. Many of them use the same Zero suspension system as the Summum, using a pair of short links and a floating shock.
If you fancy yourself as the next Fabien Barel, then the £5,499 Summum Pro Team is your weapon. Out of the box there's 210mm of travel, a Fox 40 RC2 fork, polished Formula The One brakes, Mavic Deemax Ultimate wheels and XTR transmission for an all-up weight of just 35lb. The Pro Team also comes with an adjustable geometry kit, with a choice of head tube inserts offering up to two degrees of head angle adjustment and a set of rear axle mounts delivering four chainstay length options.
The same frame is found on the regular Summum, which has less spendy parts (and leaves the geometry kit on the options list) to come in at £3,999. Or if you're after an entry-level off-the-peg DH bike, the four-bar Kaiser returns for 2010 at £2,499.
The Zero suspension system also puts in an appearance on the 190mm (and also adjustable geometry) Durham and 160mm Prayer freeride bikes. For those with a more enduro/all-mountain bent, you'll also find it on the 160mm Dune with prices starting at £2,199.
We suspect that the 140mm Foxy line will be one of the more popular in the Mondraker range, particularly as the entry-level Foxy can be yours for £1,749. There are also R and RR models at higher price points.
The 120mm Factor sticks with a traditional four-bar back end but gets a few tweaks, with smoothed welds up front and asymmetric chainstays. There are four bikes, starting with the £1,449 Factor and topping out with the £2,999 Factor RR LTD.
Mondraker also has a full range of hardtails, although they're all quite specialist, being either dirt jump bikes or XCish lightweights. We're not going to argue with the likes of the Podium Carbon Pro, though - £3,249 with SRAM XX transmission, SID Race SL fork and so on. It's also a fantastic glittery purple. The same carbon fibre frame (in more traditional red/white/black) is found on the £1,599 Podium Carbon, and there are Scandium-framed Podiums too.
It's certainly a good-looking range of bikes and a lot of them appear to stack up well in value for money terms. Take a closer look by visiting UK distributors Silverfish.
