Mongoose Impassse

I’d been watching this bike for a while and when the price dropped, I finally bought it. It probably took me an hour to put together because I wasn’t sure what I was doing, The bike looks great! I never had a mountain bike with only 9 gears so I was nervous how it was going to work. The low gear is just as easy as previous bikes I’ve had for going up hills, and the high gear is good. I didn’t have to adjust anything to get the gears shifting accurately. I haven’t done much bumpy riding but the shocks seem good too. Overall I think it was a great purchase - great price for a mid range mountain bike with nice components you don’t find on similarly priced bikes. I can’t see a $2000-3000 bike being that much better that it’s worth that much extra money unless you’re a professional rider or something. For the average mountain biker I think this is great!

Bike arrived nice and mostly assembled, so I finished assembly of the bike without many issues (left pedal had burs in threads that had to be brushed out before pedal could be screwed into place). The two major problems I had were the right bike pedal clicked loudly when I pedaled the bike, and lower gears always sounded like they were trying to shift into another gear. For the right pedal, I tried reinstalling the pedals but it always clicked when pressing down on the pedal (it clicked once per revolution of the crank), and it was plenty loud enough to be noticed by others. It sounded like a bearing may have been missing, or the bearing race was cracked or otherwise damaged. The problem was with the pedal itself, and the crank was fine. For the derailleur, I tried tuning the rear derailleur and couldn't get it to reliably stay in gear so I took it to a professional bike shop and they couldn't do it either. The only resolution for both issues was to purchase a new set of bike pedals for the popping pedal issue, and purchase a replacement derailleur for the shifting problem. The old shifter did Not have a visual aid to let you know what gear you were in, and the new one did which was Much more enjoyable to use. After the two parts were replaced, the bike was (and is) an absolute blast to ride. I'm 5' 5" tall and ride the 27.5" bike, it's hard to get onto because of my short legs but is easy to ride and control when I'm on it. I've had Mongoose mountain and trail bikes since 1999, and this is the first bike I've ever owned by Mongoose that arrived with any major problems.

The hanger that holds the derailleur in place is aluminum and it broke in two after the first dozen rides. I'm a beginner to mountain biking so not aggressive at all. I called the manufacturer to see if they had replacements made of steel but no luck. I received a replacement hanger and it broke in two after the second ride.

The quality is pretty disappointing, did just a bit of riding and my rear wheel bearings seem to be shot, the gear set on this is disappointing in itself as well, over all I’d rather get a used better quality bike.

Nice bike. Easy to assemble

Very smooth ride, had to get a fat seat desperately because I’m a larger person, it came mostly assembled but make sure you read the instructions and tighten everything because a few things were installed backwards, like the break lines, other than that it’s a great ride, can’t wait to take it on a trail

The suspension works very good. For $500. It’s a good bike. I took it on some nearby jumps and it works pretty good except for the chain pops off often on the gear shifting part. Otherwise, I really enjoy it.

Bike is honestly really nice looking, I had hopes it would be as good as it looked and was excited to get it, but unfortunately for a $500 bike it has some issues that started to happen shortly after I took it on a few rides. If you don't know anything about how to manually fix mountain bikes or adjust things and take things apart to fix it, I would not recommend this and just get yourself a bike from a shop or something where it's already been tested and adjusted. I put everything together myself, but from the start I had issues installing the handlebars because the piece that holds the bars onto the frame of the bike had 4 screws and one of them was on so tight it was nearly impossible to get off without extreme force and me wearing a padded glove so I didn't hurt my hand on the Allen wrench. Brakes are not properly aligned and slide to a stop more than letting me stop fast and my rotars on the wheels are slightly uneven and bent and causing my brake pads to slip while I brake, the brakes themselves were really loose when I first rode which I noticed and watched YouTube tutorials on how to fix these specific type of brakes and when I tried to adjust them the cable now just slips even though I tightened the screw on the caliper near the wheel as much as I could, and adjusted the one on the handlebar t To be more responsive so I don't have to pull on the handle fully to stop but the cable will not stay put after I adjusted it and tightened everything, huge safety issue if I can't stop quickly or at all. Both brakes need full force to stop and even then they are more of a slow sliding stop than instant. The frame of the bike itself seems to be a bit squeaky and noisy , sometimes sounding "cheap" like it'll break in half and not sure why that is, I am only 137 lbs and 5'1 and not that heavy. I will say the tires are really nice on it, overall it rides very smooth, I did change my seat for a different one I bought so it's more comfortable since I have back issues but this bike really isn't good for people that expect a bike out of the box that is ready to ride soon as you put it all together..