The Mondraker Dune sure is a good looking bike, but in particular the range topping XR model really makes this bike pop! On first impressions I was amazed how light it was, weighing only 19.7kg for a proper hard core enduro ebike. Mondraker have achieved this by using the "midweight" Bosch SX motor and 400wh battery.
How it rides:
The bike is extremely quick off the mark and enables you to make mistakes such as braking too much in a corner, as it is so quick to get back up to speed that you'd barely notice. My friend was following me down the trails at Puddletown forest where we were doing back to back runs on this Dune vs my normal Nukeproof Megawatt RS (26kg!) Yes they're very different bikes but they're also both designed to ride gnarly terrain and have 170mm travel and coil shocks. My friend noted that on the Dune I was easily 3-4 seconds quicker on this short 30 second track that featured loamy corners, rooty section and some tight rutty descents. The most obvious difference with the weight was how easily I could pull up off any small little root and jump over sections of the trail, something that was very difficult on the Megawatt. One criticism of the Dune was that the front end felt very light and scatty. If you got your line wrong or caught your wheel on something the front wheel would turn very quickly and I would imagine could easily cause a crash, as it nearly did a few times for me.
The motor & battery:
This Mondraker Dune XR came equipped with a Bosch SX motor and a 400Wh battery. I was rather skeptical how long the battery would last but it comfortably lasted a days riding at Puddletown forest where I kept it in Tour+ all day. I found the Eco mode rather pathetic, so instead used the bike in Tour+ which felt equivalent to Eco on my Shimano EP8 equipped Megawatt.
I found the motor to be plenty powerful despite it being only 55Nm motor. This is certainly helped by by keeping a high cadence.
This bike was the 2024 model which has the large screen on the handlebars which is rather cumbersome. I have been told the 2025 model gets the new Purion display that is much smaller and sits behind the bars next to the stem like the Shimano system.
The bike went through the first 10% of battery very quickly, but after that it declined at a much more linear rate. A 250Wh range extender is available for the bike, but when fitted you then loose your water bottle mount, a big problem in my opinion.
Conclusion:
The Mondraker Dune XR is a fantastic enduro e-bike that can handle any terrain and is amazingly light. However in my eyes Mondraker should instead fit the Bosch Gen5 CX motor to this bike and that would give it more grunt and in my eyes suit the purpose of this bike better which is to shuttle back to the top of the hill as quick as possible ready to shred the trails on the way back down. If they did this it would put it in line with the Whyte E-Lyte Evo although with more travel which is always handy on gnarly riding days. The other issue is the price; at £11,999 for the Dune XR it's just crazy, the wiser move would be to go for the Dune RR at £8,499 where you get the same carbon frame, Bosch powertrain and T-type drivetrain but for significantly less money. I'm also not a fan of the over dampened Ohlins suspension, in my eyes fit a Zeb and Vivid Coil to the bikes instead and drop the prices by £1500.