Non-Custom not for Long: the Orange Rocket

With all the fun I had with the Turquoise Snowman and given that it was my first custom built bike in a long time, it's strange that only three years later I got its replacement: a Mondraker F-Podium DC RR aka the Orange Rocket.

I can't really tell, I guess it's a combination of three things. First, I was looking for the next great bike after having ridden the Yeti extensively. Second, standards in the bike industry change (I hope that'll stop at some point, but people are already building 32 inch wheeled bikes...) all the time: the industry was moving to boost spacing and wheels with the old standard would become hard to come by. And lastly, I was looking for a slightly less well known brand. And this one seemed to have built a really cool bike with a modern geometry that was going even further into the category of "really fast uphill but bloody capable on the downhills", exactly what I like!

But First I Tested Quite a Number of Bikes

However, it was not just: let's go for this bike.

I tested the then brand new BMC Fourstroke in a striking yellow with gold-like glitter in the paint job - very nice and way less tacky than it sounds 😄. However, it was a bit too much of a XC race bike: not enough drop on the dropper post, only a 100mm fork. The LT (for long travel) variant came out only later, so this one was out.

Later, I also tested a Scott Spark, Nino Schurter's weapon of choice, albeit in a lower spec variant. And that was part of the problem: being used to top-of-the-shelf components, I couldn't appreciate the bike enough. But two other aspects were going against it as well. First, the design had been a bit long in the tooth and it was obvious that soon Scott would release a completely new bike, especially also given that they had bought the Swiss niche bike brand "Bold" that was hiding the rear suspension inside the frame. That's exactly what happened: one year later a complete redesign hid the rear suspension inside the bottom bracket area of the frame for a much more elegant and mud-proof design. But the most important reason: in Switzerland everybody and their dog have a Scott mountain bike. Don't get me wrong: these are great bikes, designed in Switzerland and they have won everything that can be won. But I wanted something more unique.

To complete the picture I also tested a Mondraker F-Podium in its race incarnation - without a dropper post (crazy, right?), I had to install a dropper post myself before I could get a good feeling about it.

Again a Brand Coming from the Downhill Side

So, with Mondraker, after Yeti, I was going for a brand with a strong downhill history again. Mondraker was founded in Alicante (Spain) in 2001 has their DNA firmly planted in downhill territory. Their first successes in racing came from their Summum downhill bike. They were also among the first brands to go very deep into the "lower, longer, slacker" (they call it Forward Geometry) trend of modern MTB geometry, i.e. lower bottom bracket, longer reach and slacker head angle. All of these variables improve stability on the downhill.

Now, what caught my eye in 2019 was the launch of their first ever XC full suspension bike going all in on this. Also, together with the launch of the race-focused F-Podium, they jumped on the short lived trend of "down country" bikes. A fad, I admit, but again: exactly what my riding is about, namely a fast cross country bike that is great on descents. And then, their top of the line F-Podium DC RR came in a striking orange paint job, one of my favorite colors.

The unapologetically orange Mondraker F-Podium DC RR

I had liked the race focused test Mondraker when I finally got a dropper on it. With a down country version of that, I figured, I would be very happy. Enough said: I was sold.

Deal Hunting

When I first checked the pricing of the Mondraker as shown above in Switzerland a got a small shock: 8'000 CHF. Ok, in itself, that's not shocking for a top specced carbon full suspension bike. However, hear me out: the dropper is from a Mondraker-owned no-name brand. The wheels, while the nicest DT Swiss aluminum hoops, could be better: one would expect carbon wheels at this price range. And there were a couple of other sneaky cost optimizations on Mondraker's end: while the crankset, derailleur and brakes were the latest and just newly released XTR, the cassette was XT and so was the trigger shifter. Still: fine. But not for an 8k bike. And, most importantly: when I looked at European e-commerce shops, the exact same bike was going for 6'500 EUR (with the EUR trading below the Swiss Franc)!

Ok, decision taken, e-commerce shop found - let's pull the trigger. And I did. But, alas, I didn't take the pandemic into account. It was March 2020 and the entire world was going into a standstill. The shop that had the bike I wanted listed had to retract as the Spanish production facility stopped working and wouldn't be available to ship even bikes that were ready. Good that our Austrian neighbors came to rescue: Bernhard Kohl had the bike listed as well and confirmed that they have it on stock. Within a day of sending the money, the delivery truck arrived at my home and my new trail toy arrived. And this is what it looked like:

Brand new Mondraker F-Podium DC RR - before tuning.

The Best XTR to Date, But Wireless Wins

This bike was only available with Shimano XTR (with a couple of sneaky replacements, see above). The then latest incarnation, the M9100, was released in summer 2018 and with it Shimano made the jump to 12 speeds, full two years after SRAM. And it got rave reviews: every part was new and improved. It was, and possibly is to this date, the peak of mechanical shifting for mountain bikes. Especially shifting up and down under pressure was buttery smooth. However, apart from never being a Shimano-enthusiast, by 2015 SRAM had become the clear innovation front runner being first to go 1x12 and also first to go fully wireless. I had fully bought into and enjoyed both technologies on the trail, so it was obvious that my new trail rocket would inherit the wireless drivetrain from the Yeti. I did try one thing though: emulate what Bike Mag called "the mismatch made in heaven": run the wireless SRAM shifter with the Shimano cassette and chain. It was pretty good, but I'm not sure I really got the best of both worlds, so after a while I went back to a full SRAM setup.

Similarly for the brakes: completely redesigned, light and with a good bite, especially considering their XC race pedigree, the XTRs impressed me. However, I had only just gotten my Piccola that is even lighter and just on another level of beauty. So the Piccola would go on it, but I ran the XTR brakes way longer than the drive train. Other than on the Yeti, the Mondraker has internally routed brake lines. Which meant: disconnecting the Piccola brakes lines, route them internally and then reconnect and bleed the brakes. Not really something I felt like doing back then.

The brakes really turned into a drama in the end. I brought the bike to my local bike shop for swapping the brakes. And while the head mechanic of the shop is a great guy and usually knows his stuff, he mixed up the brake fluids for bleeding. Face meet palm! So, he had to take apart the entire brake, put in new seals and fill it with the oil (and not DOT...) it was built for. Good that I have a spare mountain bike, my trusted Niner ROS9, to bridge periods of time when my primary bike is at the mechanic.

And this is also the reveal on the secret of why the selling pics of the Yeti show it with Shimano parts. The new owner of my Turquoise Snowman got a seriously great deal: the great frame and a selection of almost unused top-shelf Shimano parts.

More Tuning to Make it Even More Custom

But I didn't stop there. One other seriously necessary swap was the dropper post. The stock dropper post really was as bad as I thought: a cheap trigger, hard to push down and sluggish to come back up. I needed to change this as quickly as possible. Luckily, I had heard about the BikeYoke Revive. What could go wrong with another German manufacturer obsessed with quality and longevity? Nothing: this is another part I've been using way after retiring my Orange Rocket. Just do the yearly lower tube maintenance and you're good for another season, no matter how much mud you throw at your bike during the wet months.

Another cheap part was the stock suspension lockout remote. This is the default remote that came with Fox suspensions back then. Flimsy plastic mounted below the handlebar, so you'd almost certainly inadvertently hit it while being out of the saddle und lock or unlock it unwillingly. Terrible. This is where testing the BMC came in handy: I had experienced the beautiful lockout remote from DT Swiss. The nice round shapes, smooth but crisp lockout and aluminum grey polish was perfect for my new bike.

The DT Swiss ODL suspension lockout lever.

Riding and Racing it

Three things came together that made me spend way more time on my bike than ever before: in early 2020 I was out of a job with a generous garden leave, the spring weather was amazing and the pandemic hit. Also, days after being out of a job I thought: hey, this is a good opportunity to do something crazy and sign up for a Mountain Bike Marathon. I also got a bike computer, a heart rate monitor and a power meter - the amazing RaceFace Cinch power meter - and created a training plan to be at my best for my first Jura Bike Marathon.

In the four years with the Orange Rocket, I rode it for almost 11'000 km and clocked almost 300'000 meters of elevation Everesting it ~34 times!

Battle scars on the frame of the Orange Rocket after migrating the parts to it's younger brother.

I've loved everything about this bike and could have ridden it for another number of years. But 4 years of riding in every weather and putting in so many kilometers and elevation meters left some battle scars on the frame. So, I felt like it may be coming to its end of life. Also: in 2023 Mondraker released its new and slightly improved F-Podium. So, in 2024 the Orange Rocket was replaced by its younger brother. And the legacy continues: the new F-Podium is all what the first incarnation was and more. I couldn't be happier about having found this brand and model. This is the perfect bike for me: fast & light and fantastic on descents. As long as they continue to build bikes of this calibre and continue refining on this winning concept, I'll be a Mondraker devotee.