# when did mongoose turn to crap?



## chinolofus (May 14, 2006)

when did mongoose turn to crap? or have they always been in the eye of the enthusiest? i had an early model iboc back in 96 and it was a great bike. i got out of touch with the popular brands for 10 yrs and now i never see mongoose mentioned. i come from a small town and the local shop had mongoose bikes so that was what you bought if you wanted to spend money. hell my dad payed 700+ for a rockadile w/o shocks and now i see you can buy rockadiles at walmart for 200.


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## OCAP (Mar 29, 2006)

I kinda' wondered about this, too. When I was real young (about 27 years ago) Mongoose made a really nice BMX bike.-Or at least I thought they did when I was 6.  Seriously, didn't they used to make a fairly nice bike?


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## crashedandburned (Jan 9, 2004)

*You mean they weren't [email protected] at one time???*

I never did care for MG. Even in the mid 80's during my BMX days I thought they were junk. Although they have gone even futher downhill since.


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## Clever_UserID (Aug 11, 2005)

Mmmm....Walgoose. Or when in a pack, Walgeese. Seriously I think you can trace it back to some of the bike deals around the turn of the century. maybe just before. Frankly I'm amazed that they're trying to move back upscale. Too many people like me remember them being sold in Walmart with fake shocks on them to take them seriously (Even if we do remember their BMX roots of the 80s).

Rad come to mind? 

(Seriously, I'm no historian, but i think it was late 90s that they went downscale)


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## crashedandburned (Jan 9, 2004)

Clever_UserID said:


> Rad come to mind?


You mean the movie or Rad Rick comic in the old BMX Plus mag. back in the day?


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## chad1433 (Apr 5, 2004)

1998-99, somewhere in there they were sold to Pacific bicycles. Prior to that they were making some cool bikes, some very nice Ti frames. Then, Schwinn and GT went down too and got bought by Pacific. Pacific decided that Mongoose, Schwinn and GT had good brand recognition and could be sold in Wal Marts and Targets...and they were right!

Mongoose still offers some decent bikes. Check out the Teocali line and the new EC (Eric Carter) lines...they get good reviews.


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## Call_me_Clyde (Oct 27, 2004)

*Chad got it right*

When they got bought by Pacific, they began selling to the Wal-Marts of the world and took a serious hit to their reputation. If you look at their web site, what they now market as "Mongoose Pro" is their attempt at redemption. Thier high end bikes are decent, in spite of themselves as a company.

Bob


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## @dam (Jan 28, 2004)

Yeah- when they got bought out by Pacific (same with Schwinn and GT, who made AWESOME bikes before being bought out).

I had a Mongoose IBOC Team in 1993. It was my first serious mountain bike. It is still around and kicking, too (it is my dad's bike now).

Anyway, as was mentioned above, Pacific bought them out for the name recognition (I think some other company might own one or two of the brands now though). Then they slapped the label on department store bikes, which worked out great for a while. Then, suprise suprise, the brands became synonomous with department store crap, so they tried making some mid-level to decent bikes again. However, they burned that bridge when they abandoned all of their former high end customers, so their return to high-end isn't working out so well. I still have a high-end "lifetime warranty" 1999 Schwinn homegrown with a cracked frame that I'm sure they'll never fix. It was a total slash and burn of three great bike brands.


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## Tracerboy (Oct 13, 2002)

Agreed, once Pacific bought them out it all started going downhill from there. Mongoose is now mostly only known as the Walmart special. I work with a guy that has a Mongoose Ti frame back when it was just Mongoose and it is very nice.


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## Dirt Bringer (May 10, 2006)

About ten years ago, when they were purchased by huffy or something like them. They have come back in the last two years, and really have some cool designes out there.
The stuff at wallmart are not real rockadiles, or whatever else. To any good biker they are toys that will sort of get from point A to point A-and a half, very painfully.


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## Maida7 (Apr 29, 2005)

Right after the John Tomac Signature IBOC line. Those bikes were rad. Johnny T was the man! Didn't yeti make a special Ti version of the IBOC? I seem to remember it had the Tioga disk drive rear wheel. Old School Indeed.

Lotsa brands have fallen off the map. Check out Raleigh, Schwinn, Diamondback. Fisher and Klein are now trek. Tom Ritchey dosn't even make mtn. bikes any more. Even merlin is gone.


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## chad1433 (Apr 5, 2004)

Call_me_Clyde said:


> When they got bought by Pacific, they began selling to the Wal-Marts of the world and took a serious hit to their reputation. If you look at their web site, what they now market as "Mongoose Pro" is their attempt at redemption. Thier high end bikes are decent, in spite of themselves as a company.
> 
> Bob


The did the "Pro" designation back in the '90s when Leigh Donovan and Steve Larsen were racing on the team. But it's certainly not what it was, though the new EC stuff looks pretty nice. I'd ride one, but I wouldn't sell my current bike to do it.

I think these companies now have a showroom floor problem too, because they demand that shops carry large amounts of merchandise which really means you can only order them or if you're lucky, you'll see one at Dick's:skep:


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## @dam (Jan 28, 2004)

Ahhh- showrooms. That brings up another big point. Not only do they demand a high inventory (that is news to me), but they expect to get service and a high level of dedication from the very shops they left high and dry a few years back? Not bloody likely. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice.....you can't fool me again.


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## brozek (Aug 17, 2005)

Call_me_Clyde said:


> When they got bought by Pacific, they began selling to the Wal-Marts of the world and took a serious hit to their reputation. If you look at their web site, what they now market as "Mongoose Pro" is their attempt at redemption. Thier high end bikes are decent, in spite of themselves as a company.
> 
> Bob


Pacific takes a lot of heat for this, but it's actually incorrect - Riteway owned Mongoose before Pacific did, and it was actually Riteway that started selling Mongoose bikes to Wal-mart.


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## Clever_UserID (Aug 11, 2005)

crashedandburned said:


> You mean the movie or Rad Rick comic in the old BMX Plus mag. back in the day?


Sadly I meant the movie (ass-slidin' with the full house chick). Now I wish I subscribed to BMX plus (i checked out some of the Radical Richard (ha) comics)


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## AchrisK (May 15, 2006)

I think Mongoose was always kinda seen as a second rate BMX bike back in the day, behind brands like Redline and Diamond Back. But I had a Mongoose Supergoose in the mid 80's (full chro-mo with holes in the rear dropouts) and it took tons of abuse from me. I was flying 6 feet in the air while my friend with a Diamond Back was getting like 6 inches.

It sucks that Department store bike companies bought them and GT and Schwinn...but it was probably a brilliant business move for them. the names still sell.

ack


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## Call_me_Clyde (Oct 27, 2004)

*My bad*



brozek said:


> Pacific takes a lot of heat for this, but it's actually incorrect - Riteway owned Mongoose before Pacific did, and it was actually Riteway that started selling Mongoose bikes to Wal-mart.


I stand corrected. Thanks for the clarification.

Bob


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## jason_21218 (Feb 2, 2006)

*Back in the day....Mongoose RULED*

I lived in Panama from 83-87 (age 13-16 roughly) during the beginning of the BMX/Freestyle craze. My family and I lived on Ft Clayton (dads in the Army) and well...the ONLY Bmx bikes the local "Military PX" would stock was the 'Blue Max' Model Mongoose.

EVERY one rode those things....it was the only bike you could get down there!! The really rich kids (ie Officers Kids) mail orderd Redlines, Hutch and such...but over all, Mongoose was there for lots of kids in the beginning of Bmx. They did the job, you COULD race or freestyle on them...and were a good intro into cycling for the long haul.

We did break all those dam things though.

Remember those Mongoose wheels that had the holes in the rim between the spokes??? Haha cool. Memories, bit**es, memories....

Jason


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## steveit (Jan 25, 2004)

i was never a mongoose "enthusiest" but did have an iboc like you. 1995 iboc zero-g, it served me well and frankly it was probably as good as anyone elses DB tange steel hardtail for the price at the time. they did an iboc carbon bike, an iboc pro with ritchey logic prestige frame so you cant say they didnt try. as far as your dads rockadile, ive got a 1994 mag with an article titled "7 bikes for 7 bills" featuring 7 aluminum bikes by mong, kona, raligh, spec, univega, gt, giant. the mongoose wasnt their favorite bike but generally held its own in performance and quality. i always sorta liked the funky u shaped seat/chain stay setup tho i dont think they were the first to do it


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## Martin.au (Jan 1, 2006)

I've just bought a Mongoose Teocali Super. I think now is the perfect time to start looking at them. My suspicion is that Mongoose and GT are trying to buy their way back into the serious MTB circle and as such are producing very effective I-Drive/Freedrive based designs with stupidly good componentry on them. For the price I paid for the Teocali nothing else comes close. 

Their current suspension design seems pretty effective. I like it and the reviews are praising it. Also, according to my LBS, the Teocali has standard bearings in its pivots and can be replaced easily. No special sizes or other peculiarities.

The Teocali Super was also billed as Trailbike of the year in some mag in 2005. Not sure which one though.


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## Brown_Teeth (Jan 15, 2004)

I'm back to trashing an '03 replacement frame Idrive 1 for XC/light trails after pretty much breaking everything else, and guess what its a fun ride just do not hit the brakes in the turns/rocks, tends to stiffen up like a board. But hey Brian Lopes the king rides a HT GT to this day and is spotted on a FS at times so spending less might be the wave of the future. Here is Lopes just before he blew the doors off this euro for the win, its technique at times, and loads of experience.:thumbsup:


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## AchrisK (May 15, 2006)

jason_21218 said:


> Remember those Mongoose wheels that had the holes in the rim between the spokes??? Haha cool. Memories, bit**es, memories....
> 
> Jason


I remember those rims. I don't think they were made by mongoose. Personally I always rode Skyway Tuff Wheels. That is, after I stopped riding those heavy duty steel rims with fat spokes! Tuff wheels could take a beating and still hold up. I was always afraid to use alloy rims (these were the days where 36 holes was the most you could get, and all rims were single wall) for fear they would bend all to crap. I was also afraid of having a bike that was too light. I was used to the weight of my pretty heavy bike. It had a solid controlability to it.

Remember ACS Z-Rims? Spoked rims made of some kinda nylon? Those things flexed all over the place.

ack


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## bitflogger (Jan 12, 2004)

chinolofus said:


> when did mongoose turn to crap? or have they always been in the eye of the enthusiest? i had an early model iboc back in 96 and it was a great bike. i got out of touch with the popular brands for 10 yrs and now i never see mongoose mentioned. i come from a small town and the local shop had mongoose bikes so that was what you bought if you wanted to spend money. hell my dad payed 700+ for a rockadile w/o shocks and now i see you can buy rockadiles at walmart for 200.


I will defend them because the company as well as individual employees have been very good to us as the trail builders around their home turf.


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## SHIVER ME TIMBERS (Jan 12, 2004)

when they tried to make a mountain bike....only the BMX bikes are good


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## Mike679 (Apr 12, 2004)

Better yet, remeber Motomags? Truly works of art and weighed a ton. I had Tuff Wheels, the rims with the holes drilled between the spokes (Mongoose pro-light or something like that), and ACS Z-Rims during my BMX days.

Loved my Mongoose Gold Stem, too.


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## jrm (Jan 12, 2004)

*And the team rode rebadged M1's*



SHIVER ME TIMBERS said:


> when they tried to make a mountain bike....only the BMX bikes are good


i remember that..


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## Raghavan (Aug 14, 2005)

I thought they were bo ught out by Huffy.
Schwinn sucks too. We have an old rigid Schwinn in the garage though... That's a good bike.


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## chinolofus (May 14, 2006)

i never knew they were bought out. i remember when they started being sold at walmart. i asked the local mongoose dealer about it and they basically said they were toys. sadly that shop closed a few yrs. later. it was a great shop...they put up with my annoying teennage ass going in there and browsing on weekends. if only i had money my gt pro perfomer woulda had so many nice upgrades...instead i would just look at the bmx case and drool.


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## Locool (Feb 25, 2006)

Even back in my day- late 70s early 80s- Mongoose was 2nd tier, even when Tinker raced for them. Redline, SE Racing, JMC, Torker, GJS, Patterson were the sh!t. Schwinn, Mongoose, and Huffy all were playing catch up even back then during the 1st generation BMXers. Schwinn signed Rupe and Schubert; Mongoose had Tinker and Macnamara (?), and Huffy picked up somebody (losing memory) all to no avail, never gained traction against Stu, PK, J. Utterback, J. Ruminar, G. Hill, E. King, H. Leary, K. Macneil, D. Dain, B & B Patterson et all. Wish I had heard of MTB then so I could have transitioned like Tinker but college was on my mind then after my meager pro earnings. Fun thread for the history......


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## chinolofus (May 14, 2006)

so where even the expensive mongoose mountain bikes known as nothing special in the 90's? my first mountain bike was a mongoose switchback and it was crap. i did like my iboc comp though.


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## Martin.au (Jan 1, 2006)

The 2005 Teocali Super was trailbike of the year in one mag. I'd say they're turning the corner. Their Freedrive bikes look pretty good value and apparently are awesome to ride.


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## ChipV (Jun 6, 2005)

As someone else said, Mongoose made some pretty sweet BMX frames back in the eighites. I always dug the full cro-mo look and like the way the seat & chainstays made a continuous loop....pre-yeti.


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## Joe Sausagehead (Feb 27, 2006)

The mid-80s Mongoose KOS Cruiser remains one of the best-handling bikes ever made. But you can take the rest of them and melt them down and turn them into something useful, like beer cans.


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## amdinga (Apr 18, 2006)

mongoose is coming out with some good stuff now though. the teocalis and the diamonds aren't too shabby. I test rode a diamond 2 (freeride bike with over 7 inches of travel), and am considering buying one. They're getting serious now.


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