Mongoose Legion
FRAME & FORK
This is, essentially, an evolution of the Fuzzy frame from last year. It’s basically the same with the little massage here and there – in come the new features such as midsize bottom bracket with press-fit bearings, and a machined and heat-treated headtube fit for an integrated headset. The toptube remains pierced with a neat seatstay junction similar to a Ruben frame, and why not, since it looks so good. U-brakes are slung underneath the seatstays, the rear dropouts are 6mm thick and definitely small enough for today’s style of bikes, and there is a chainstay wishbone. A pair of open-ended gussets are at the front end, and that headtube is very well machined with a good shape. Size wise, the toptube is 20.75 inch, 14.25 back end, with the customary 11.7 inch high BB. The forks are 100 per cent cromoly as well, complete with 6mm dropouts, and they set the frame off very well – all in all, this is a well built frame, with good attention to detail, fine welding, and the sienna orange colour is awesome. New graphic colours with earth tones finish off the look, and to be frank this is a bloody nice looking complete bike.
PARTS
Instead of Mongoose plying their Legion with tons of their own-label components and parts, they have outsourced a lot of the bike to some very cool brands indeed – and here we have Snafu, Sun, Odyssey, and even Shadow Conspiracy goods all aboard the good ship Legion. For starters, we have a set of wheels that are constructed using Sun Rhyno box-section rims laced into sealed bearing hubs, including an Odyssey rear cassette hub. An Odyssey cassette is a great addition to a complete bike of this nature, and what’s more, Mongoose have completed the wheel choice with a genuine pair of Shadow Conspiracy tyres, with an Undertone street rear, and a Belter trails/street front – the perfect combination for this bike.
The cranks too are great – three piece tubular cranks that have 175mm long arms, that are left hand drive compatible, and they secure themselves onto a 48 spline heat-treated axle, spinning through a sealed bearing midsize bottom bracket. Snafu’s own platform pedals, that feel great and with a very secure grip, along with a CNC machined 30 tooth chainwheel finish off the 30:10 geared drive. The seat is another Snafu item, this time it’s a svelte padded model which is reinforced in the right places, and sits on cromoly rails, held in place with an aluminium micro-adjust seatpost with a simple single-bolt seatclamp.
Our back we have a Tektro FX15 u-brake which brings the whole shebang to a grinding halt, fed through a Snafu gyro with Snafu cables, and a Snafu C-Lever brake lever, which feels good. The bars are battleship grey, and at 7.5 inches high and 2.45 inches wide, are a good, solid size, and of course they are cromoly, and they feel spot on. The grips are awesome too, in that they are Shadow’s own soft grips, complete with end plugs and a cool tan colour that matches the seat – perfect. What’s not perfect is the stem – this is particularly low budget for such a high budget bike, which kind of lets the bike down. But aside from that, everything looks dialled.
CONCLUSION
It’s definitely an interesting step to remove the signatures from your signature bikes, but there you go – the Mongoose Legion is still a great bike that carries a lot of bang for your buck. It has a brilliant frame that really looks the part, and with its pro-designed geometry and trails bias, it works really well, and even though it’s loaded, its weight is very respectable. The new colour scheme and graphics also set this bike apart, and yet it fits right in with all the modern bikes out there, so everyone should be happy – dual tone paint finishes, brand name key parts, and all the proper stuff fitted out from the likes of Snafu, Odyssey, Shadow, Sun, and more – it’s this sort of attention to detail and added second-brand-name kudos which makes the Legion a genuine top of the line bike. You could ride this bike stock out the box (aside from a small stem change) and be pretty damn psyched at the biggest trails the land has to offer.
FRAME: MONGOOSE LEGION, 100% CROMOLY, 20.75 INCH TOPTUBE, 14.25 INCH BACK END, 11.7 INCH HIGH BB, 1.5 INCH OD TOPTUBE, 1.5 INCH OD DOWNTUBE, 0.9 INCH OD STAYS, 5MM THICK DROPOUTS, WISHBONE, MIDSIZE BB, INTEGRATED HEADTUBE
FORK: MONGOOSE, 100 % CROMOLY, 5MM DROPOUTS
HANDLEBAR: MONGOOSE 2PC CROMOLY, 24.8 INCH WIDE, 7.25 INCH TALL
STEM: MONGOOSE
HEADSET: FSA INTEGRATED
GRIPS: SHADOW CONSPIRACY
SEAT: SNAFU
SEATPOST: MONGOOSE MICRO-ADJUST ALUMINIUM
SEATCLAMP: MONGOOSE SINGLE BOLT
CRANK: MONGOOSE 3PC CROMOLY, 175MM
CHAINWHEEL: MONGOOSE CNC MACHINED, 30 TOOTH
PEDALS: SNAFU PLATFORMS
CHAIN: KMC
BOTTOM BRACKET: MIDSIZE SEALED
TYRES: SHADOW CONSPIRACY UNDERTONE 1.9 INCH REAR, SHADOW CONSPIRACY BELTER 2.1 INCH FRONT
WHEELS: SUN RHYNO LITE, CHROME PLATE REAR, 36 SPOKE, SEALED MONGOOSE FRONT HUB, REAR ODYSSEY CASSETTE HUB 11T DRIVER
BRAKES: TEKTRO FX15 REAR U-BRAKE
LEVERS: SNAFU C-LEVER
DETANGLER: SNAFU
PEGS: NONE
WEIGHT: 13.4KG OR 29LB
UK DISTRIBUTORS: HOTWHEELS on 01202 732288
Get the Latest BMX Videos on Mpora.com
