Mountain Bike Review , 2006 Mongoose Teocali Elite
- 2004 Trek Liquid 25
- 2003 Trek Fuel 90
- 2001 Specialized Rockhopper
- The seat post was excessively long. I modified it by hacking some of it off with a saw. If left stock I am sure that it would hit the top of the rear shock in some situations. This was really obivous to me right in the shop, so it seems strange that the Mongoose folks didn't fix this problem.
- Not able to lock rear shock for climbing.
- Good suspension system with plenty of travel and responsiveness.
- A stock bike that comes with all you really need for most cross country trails.
- Fairly light.
- Great brake system.
- Ability to lock front forks for climbing.
- Stock tires that work perfectly.
- $1499 in March or April 2006
I picked this bike up at Performance Bicycle Redmond,WA after my bike had been stolen from my front porch. Bastards!! Anyway it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I think I was due to get something that offered more performance than my Trek Liquid 25. I was looking to purchase something in the $1,400 to $1,800 range.
I eyeballed all the options there and narrowed it down to this one and the 2006 Iron Horse HollowPoint Mark III. I spun them around the parking lot and decided to take a shot at a Mongoose. I was fairly skeptical of Mongoose Mountain bikes to be honest, but it seemed like a well built bike with lots of options and a fairly good deal to me.
It was spring time so the bike season was just ramping up. A good time to test her out. The first thing I did before riding the bike was to chop off several inches from the seat post with my hack saw. This was done so that when I dropped the seat down the post would not hit the rear shock while riding. The first few weeks I took it to the local riding areas like Tolt - MacDonald Park, and Tiger Mountain a few times and was impressed with the responsiveness and agility. The suspension wasn't too shabby either. My first worry was the shifting system combined with the brakes into one package with the Shimano Dual Control levers. This turned out to be a complete non issue for the long term. No complaints.
After a few test rides my friends Mike and Greg invited me to climb up Ranger Creek and down the Skookum Flats trail. We climbed up to near the cabin and came back down. The bike worked great... until I was partially down the flats. Then the rear hub went bad and I was able to hobble out back to the car. Basically it left me unable to pedal about 50% of the time. I was immediately irritated and that skepticism of Mongoose Mountain bikes was creeping back into my brain. I took the bike straight back to Performance Bicycle and they fixed it by replacing it in a day. Sweet. That was the last problem I had with the bike. Ever since then it worked like a charm.
I've probably put over 300 miles on the bike this summer and it's still holding up just fine. 3 times Ranger Creek, Sun Top, Little Bald Mountain, 5 Drainages of the Teanaway Mountains, Deep Creek, Christoff, Skookum Flats, Palisades twice, blah blah yadda yadda and the bike has not had any further replacement parts other than the hub. I'd recommend this bike to someone else for sure. Mongoose get's two thumbs up.
The Bike:
