2022 Mondraker FOXY First Ride: Review Bike, Spec & Setup!

I had a chance to take out the 2022 Mondraker FOXY and get to know the bike, it's spec and setup.
MTB Demo Riding: 3 Lists of 3
I often tell riders to try to avoid coming back from a demo with a “I loved it” or “I didn’t love it” attitude.
Its tough to have all the bits line up to totally fall in love with a bike on a short demo. It’s not too hard to decide you’re not into the right bike if you don’t break apart what was based on bike design, bike category, spec or setup.
Being able to work with a resource to help define this will go a long way to understanding if you’re on the right bike with the wrong bits, or if you’re in the wrong category of bike (honestly the FOXY is probably a little bigger than I would ride - I’d probably lean into a slightly burly built RAZE - or maybe a faster spec’d FOXY… hmmm now I’ll have to go back and look again!)
So here’s my 3 lists of 3. 3 things I liked, 3 things I was neutral about and 3 things I would change if it was mine:
3 things I liked
Suspension had very consistent, confident, planted feel yet with power the bike was incredibly efficient. Felt like it was shorter rear travel than it is while climbing, found traction even in challenging conditions. Felt appropriate acceleration for increases in energy output.
Bike stayed behaved even when pushed past fork’s ramp or compression - that’s to say when I got in some “oh boy” moments and undoubtably was throwing my body around the bike didn’t spit me out but stayed competent and neutral.
Bike had good support in rear into corners, which must have been mechanical design as the shock was under ramped and didn’t have finite low speed compression controls.
3 things I’m neutral about (I only did 2)
Geometry felt right for pedaling. Felt like I expected that size bike to feel. Didn’t feel a way off from my Yeti’s fit. (check dimensions)
Wheel and tire spec was as expected on a bike of this category. Not my ideal but worked fine.
3 things I would change
Brakes. Magura or Hope for improved modulation and confident power. I’ve run both over the years with excellent results.
Suspension. Performance Suspension on the demo Foxy lacked the compression controls for fine tuning the feel. Combined with a much more linear feel due to fewer volume spacers than I would run had the bike diving more than I would have liked to see, but it 100% felt like it could be tuned out with volume spacers in Performance Suspension and volume spacers and compression settings in Ohlins of FOX Factory Suspension. I would likely end up with the Ohlins’ spec’d on the FOXY Carbon R for this bike, or a Factory Float X and Factory 36 if I went with a Raze.
Cockpit: Hands were a bit low on test bike (bars sat taller than Yeti next to it, but BB difference probably made back up for that). Getting your hands in the right place is important for finite bike feel.
In the market for #thebestinMTB? Work with the experts at BikeCo.com to get dialed in on the best bikes, with the best suspension designs, spec for your budget and setup to your needs.
See you on the trails! Nate at BikeCo.com
Check out the rest of the blog at BikeCo.com:
bikeco.com/tho...
BikeCo.com - 2022 Mondraker USA Dealer!