Mongoose Switchback Comp Expert Sport Trail Mountain Bike for Adult Men Women, 16/18/21-Speed Options, 27.5-Inch Wheels, Disc Brakes, Small Medium or Large Aluminum Frames, Hardtail Bicycles

Awesome! Worth every penny.

Great bike! Tapered frame, smooth shifts, adjustable dampening AND lockout. This bike is very upgradable great for someone looking to get into the sport of mountain biking or for a fun little project! Frame quality is insanely good, welds are clean (has a few minor pin-sized chips probably from UPS). Great non-box store Mongoose! Highly recommend. Could use a set of wheels to convert to a through-axle and some new 160mm brakes; stocks are really weak but will get the job done for XC riding. Lastly, I plan to upgrade the cranks, plastic pedals, and bars… crank width seems skinny but spacers will fix that. Best of all — THREADLESS STEM!

I had just bought a fat tire mountain bike from Mongoose. It is a great bike but even after changing the tires to road tires I was only able to pedal 8.5 mph max so I decided to try another Mongoose but one designed for bike trails as well as light mountain trails. I was able to put it together very easily. I read some complaints about the handlebar stem being backwards but this is the way most bikes are shipped. All you have to do is loosen the screws on the stem and turn it 180 degrees. I am mechanically inclined so this was automatically intuitive to me. I bought the medium frame because it was 25% off but at 5'7" I was in between small and medium frame. At first I was worried about the center bar being a male but it was no problem. I quickly learned to just tilt the bike a little bit when I stop and dismount. The Expert 18 speed was good enough for bike trail riding at top gear. I love the trigger shifters. Keep in mind that although the left shifter has 3 positions you only use 2 positions on it since 2 x 9 = 18. If you have three sprockets in front gear set you will use all 3 positions. This is most likely the Trail version with 21 speeds which use 3 x 7 = 21. All 3 on front gear set and only 7 on rear set. The Comp and Sport versions of 9 and 8 speeds, respectively most likely have only 1 front sprocket so you probably only use position 1 on left trigger. My shifters worked great and needed no adjustment. I love the disc brakes as it has great stopping power. Only negative I faced is when seat was all the way down it was still a bit high for my 29" inseam. It could not go down further because the stem hit the threaded inserts from accessory mount screws. You will have to buy a kickstand as it doesn't come with one. Overall, I took it on bike trail today and was able to get up to 13 mph on level surface. It is a great bike for the value and I recommend it.

Ok Daughter did great in school and deal was she got a bike. She found this one and wanted it. Ok no problem.Look about a month to come in. Ugh. ok whatever.Assembly wasnt bad at all. Box looked fine and went ahead with it. So I gave it a quick test drive before handing the keys to my daughter. Brakes needed help. adjusted them a bit. Covered with oil so that didnt help them being weak. Cleaned them off and it got better. While doing the rears I noticed that the wheel was grinding. It wasnt hitting anything and even removed the caliper. Still grinding. So I thought they were a little weak on the assembly with bearing grease. Took the wheel off and put brought it to my workshop.Noticed the problem when I just spun the axle. Its freakin bent! What the heck! The quick release stem didnt even want to come out easily. Finally got it out. After that I removed the assembly to see how bad it was. Oh boy. This is a few MM off. Not sure what the hell happened but this thing has problems as you see in the pics.Now I have to contact Amazon and see what the heck they are doing to do. Brand new bike 1, me 0. Feel bad about my daugher. Busted her ass, did well and as a reward got a dud.

I read an article recently that said Mongoose had started building good bikes again. I was skeptical, but I needed a decent hardtail for my wife and really didn’t want to spend $1,200. And even if I did, they were all sold out anyway, so I bought her the Mongoose Switchback Comp for $600. Tonight I opened the box, put the frame on my stand and settled in for what I thought was going to be a nightmare assembly. Not 45 minutes later, I was done! Other than having to tweak the brake cables just a touch, it went together like a dream. The derailleurs were pre-adjusted perfectly and even the seat angle was dead on. There was even lubricant where it was supposed to be and the screws for stuff like the handlebars already had Loctite on them.I was also impressed with the components. Everything that mattered was from Shimano and other reputable companies and they were all decent grade stuff! I do wish it had Presta instead of Schrader valves, if only because now I need to keep 27.5 tubes in both styles, but it’s a minor thing.As for the construction, it was also impressive, especially at this price point. The Aluminum frame welds were as good as I’ve seen and where the cables were run through the frame, the holes had reinforcing plates welded on. I found no rough or sharp edges to cut cables or snag clothes. It’s also a very nice looking ride in dark gray matte with pink lettering and the finish is nicely done.The devil is always in the details and this time, the folks at Mongoose really got it right. I recommend this bike and wouldn’t hesitate to to ride it straight into the nasty stuff!