Mondraker bills its Dune e-bike as the natural evolution of enduro. And the Spanish brand has a point. With many enduro race bikes tipping the scales at around 16kg, who has the time or the fitness to slog up and down a hillside on one? Except maybe pro EDR racers. Especially when the best lightweight electric bikes only add a few extra kilos and effectively halve the time it takes to get back to the top for another run.

– Short of time? Click here to skip to the verdict –

The Mondraker Dune RR gets MX wheels and 165mm of travel to give it the tools needed to tackle the toughest of terrain.

Sounds like a no-brainer, but how does the Mondraker Dune RR stack up against one of its main rivals – the YT Decoy SN? I got hold of both bikes and put them head-to-head to find out which one has the X-factor.

– Read my head-to-head test against the YT Decoy SN Core 4 e-enduro bike here –

Mondraker Dune RR need to know

• Lightweight enduro e-bike with Bosch SX motor
• Carbon frame delivers 165mm travel
• 400Wh internal battery and optional 250Wh range extender
• Up to 600W assistance at high revs
• Under 20Kg in size large
• Ohlins suspension with 170mm travel fork
• MX wheels

Wind up the Bosch SX motor and it’ll spit out up to 600W of assistance.

Motor and battery

To give the Dune enough pace on the climbs while retaining the mobility and excitement of a conventional enduro bike, Mondraker has opted for the Bosch SX motor. It’s a drive unit that encourages a high cadence, preventing the temptation to sit back and rely on the engine entirely. Peak power only arrives at about 120rpm, which is extremely difficult to sustain. It’s also impossible to achieve on steep, technical climbs even with a wide-range cassette, so the motor doesn’t have the same rock-crawling ability of its stablemate – the CX. Since most enduro trails tend to be accessed by gradual fireroad climbs, this isn’t a big deal, but it’s worth noting if you like to take on hillclimb challenges.

On the other hand, the motor keeps on giving the faster you pedal, and it feels strong once up to speed. Riding back-to-back with the Fazua Ride 60 on the YT Decoy, I immediately noticed how much more support the Bosch SX unit gave me. And the gap only grew as I became more fatigued. To help encourage those revs, I’d like to see Mondraker switch the stock 170mm cranks for shorter versions.

The Bosch System Controller gives just enough info, but the Dune RR also comes with the large colour Kiox 500 screen if you like to dig into the data.

You don’t get something for nothing, so given that the Bosch unit feels more powerful, and uses a smaller capacity 400Wh battery than the Fazua, it stands to reason that there’s an impact on the range. In our recent SL E-Bike of the Year test, using exactly the same tyres, on the same trails, in full power mode, the Bosch SX managed 860m climbing, while the Fazua racked up 1,200m. Clearly, if range is your top priority then the Fazua is your best opton. But the scales tilt back in favour of the Mondraker if you factor in the optional range extender, since Fazua doesn’t offer one (yet).

There’s a slight rattle with the Bosch unit that’s annoying and distracting when descending, and the SX motor is also marginally louder than the Fazua when climbing. To toggle between power modes, there’s a wireless remote on the handlebar, while a LED display on the top tube shows current drive mode and remaining battery life in 10% increments. Mondraker ships the Dune RR with Bosch’s Kiox 500 display, which is full colour and offers enough data to rival an F1 pit wall, but I found it distracting and impossible to mount without getting in the way or looking goofy. Bosch’s latest Purion 400 would be a neater solution without sacrificing functionality.

The Zero suspension design has been refined recently, with the shock now compressed by both the rocker link and the swingarm.

Frame and geometry

Mondraker’s Stealth Air full carbon frame and carbon rocker link is seriously light. At just 2.6kg (claimed), it builds into a real world 19.89kg enduro bike that weighs less than all three Bosch-equipped trail bikes we tested in the SL E-Bike of the Year round-up. Impressive given it comes with appropriate tyres, brakes, and suspension.

A recess under the top tube accepts a Fidlock mount, letting you mount a bottle and a range extender at the same time.

The new frame is used across the Dune’s three-bike range, so even the entry-level Dune R gets the same fundamental chassis. And having ridden (and weighed) the top-of-the-line Dune XR model, even that sneaks in under 20kg, at 19.93kg with a coil shock and 180mm travel fork.

Mondraker’s signature head tube window is the boldest aspect of a head-turning frame design.

Mondraker has used its twin-link Zero suspension design for many years now, but while it’s an effective layout on a conventional bike, there are drawbacks when there’s a motor involved. Chiefly the interrupted seat tube design dramatically limits dropper post insertion. So although the seat tube measures a reasonable 455mm from centre to top, the 170mm drop Onoff post won’t go down all the way. In fact, Mondraker may as well have made the seat tube length 490mm, because that’s how low the post will go. This has a big impact on how easily I was able to move around the bike without getting impeded by the saddle – not great for an enduro bike, where it’s crucial to be fully in-charge on steep, rowdy terrain.

This is as far as the seatpost will insert into the Dune’s seat tube, so I could never get the saddle totally out of the way.

Ironically, tilting the shock angle and attaching the lower eyelet to the swingarm, instead of the lower link, has allowed Mondraker to create more standover clearance. And the top tube is well out of the way, but the saddle was a literal thorn in my (back) side. Kudos though, for making the Dune compatible with both a range extender and a water bottle, with the latter attached via a Fidlock mount under the top tube.

Headset cable routing doesn’t do the Dune any favours in the home workstand.

To give the Dune a clean look, Mondraker has opted for headset-routed cables. It’s undeniably sleek from a visual standpoint, but servicing and maintenance is made unnecessarily convoluted as a result, so I’d be happy to see the back of it. The newly launched Crafty e-bike has reverted to ports at the front of the head tube, so it looks like Mondraker has already binned this road bike hangover going forward.

Cast an eye over the geometry and nothing particularly stands out as radical. Ten years ago this wouldn’t have been the case, as Mondraker broke the mould with its Forward Geometry concept, but now the numbers are very much mainstream. Typically for the Spanish brand, the bottom bracket is pretty high. I’d love to see a flip chip added – as it has done on the new Crafty – to give a low BB option. Given that the Dune has long 170mm cranks, Mondraker could easily drop the BB 5mm, add a flip chip, reduce the crank lengths, and still avoid any issues with pedal strikes.

The Ohlins suspension worked like a charm.

Suspension

To give the Dune a more premium build, Mondraker has headed to Scandinavia for the suspension components. Ohlins supplies the RXF 38 M.2 fork and TTX Air shock, and the first thing you need to know about these units is that set-up is a little more involved than your typical Fox or RockShox product. Fortunately Mondraker has a handy PDF sheet with a load of recommended settings on it, which gave me a really good starting point.

I ran the shock in the lightest of three compression damping settings.

The main consideration is that there are two air spring chambers in the RXF fork; the main air spring, and a ramp-up chamber. Each one needs to be pressurised in sequence. With some base numbers plugged into the fork and shock, my rear sag ended up at 20mm (30%) in the seated position. And right out of the gate, the suspension on the Dune RR felt dialled. The highly active shock fluttered away over small bumps to give copious levels of traction, while the damping tune is light enough, and the shock sufficiently supportive, to make the bike disgustingly effortless to hop gaps and janky holes. Full travel was achievable, but not too easily, and the progression felt predictably consistent wherever I was in the stroke.

Setting up the Ohlins fork was made easier by Mondraker’s accurate recommended settings.

In all honesty, it felt more effective than the slightly stilted TT coil shock I rode extensively on the Dune XR, along with simpler tuning. The same could be said for the Ohlins RXF 38 fork, which was smooth, supple, and composed throughout the test, with none of the weird metallic spiking I experienced when unweighted on the longer travel Dune XR.

I also ran the Ohlins fork in the most open setting.

There’s not as much progression, or support, as the Fox 38 Grip X2 fork on the YT, but I found the Ohlins set-up to be more comfortable and forgiving, with headroom for lighter riders to reduce the damping.

SRAM’s GX T-Type transmission worked faultlessly, and the rubber frame protection is well-designed, but the motor rattle stops the Dune from being a silent ride.

Components

The SRAM GX AXS Transmission was a pleasure to use, even if attaching the wireless shifter pod to the SRAM Code brake lever meant it was harder to get in the perfect position. A separate SRAM Infinity clamp, like the one fitted to the YT Decoy SN, would solve the issue and give more scope for adjustment.

Bigger, thicker, HS2 rotors would be a useful upgrade on the Dune RR to improve the braking.

Fine in isolation, those Code Bronze Stealth brakes can’t match the solid lever feel and outright power of the latest Maven units on the YT, and this was a huge differentiator on the trail in terms of how fast I could ride the two bikes. An easy improvement would be to ship the Dune with a 220mm front rotor and make the swap from Centreline discs to SRAM’s HS2.

Neat mudguards protect the shock from the worst of mud and spray.

Which is a shame, given that the tyre spec on the Dune is prime for confident descending. A sticky MaxxGrip Assegai sharpens up turn-in at the front, while the Max Terra Minion DHRII supplies ample traction at the rear wheel. With a Exo+ casing up front and a Double Down out back, Mondraker has achieved a great balance between weight and sidewall protection.

The Dune is a lot of fun to chuck around, but the saddle height does impede freedom of movement.

Performance

The Dune RR’s greatest assets are that it manages to feel more like a conventional enduro bike than a typical e-bike on the descents, yet can blast back up the hill faster and with less effort than any other ‘lightweight’ enduro e-bike currently on the market. Which includes the YT Decoy SN, Specialized Kenevo SL, and Trek Slash+.

For a SL e-bike, the Dune feels quick on the climbs – as long as you can spin the cranks quick enough.

Climbing

Swapping between the Fazua-powered YT Decoy SN and the Bosch-powered Mondraker Dune RR at the Forest of Dean and BikePark Wales, highlighted just how much faster and less tiring the high-revving SX motor is on the climbs. Which makes total sense since it has a much higher peak power than the Fazua. The thing is, although over 100rpm is needed to really tap into that power, I could still get more from the Bosch unit at attainable cadences of between 80-90rpm. Given most enduro tracks are accessed by relatively mellow fireroads, it’s pretty easy to keep the cranks spinning in that range, so every lap took less time and less effort on the Dune.

The high BB means pedal strikes are few and far between.

The Mondraker has a very steep effective seat angle, so the relatively short chainstays weren’t an issue when I needed to punch up a bank, or tackle a more technical climb. But this isn’t really the forte of the motor, so I found the lack of low-down torque to be the biggest limiting factor on hillclimb challenges.

The roomy wheelbase kept me well-centred between the wheels.

Descending

While the YT put me into a low position with my head hovering over the bars, the Dune RR was both higher and more upright. If the YT made me feel like I was mimicking Finn Iles – racy and attacking – the Mondraker was the polar opposite, closer to Dakotah Norton’s sit-up-and-beg stance. Which is apt, since he rides for Mondraker.

There’s a degree of flex to the Dune RR when loaded up in turns and threading ruts that makes it forgiving to ride.

Both positions felt efficient, and confidence inspiring in different ways, but the Mondraker was easier to ride when tired, while the YT felt more dynamic when fresh. However, the saddle regularly got in the way on the Mondraker, snagging at the least opportune moments.

The light weight and poppy suspension makes the Dune RR a fun bike on jump trails.

As reflects the complete bike weights, there’s a distinct difference in stiffness between the Dune and the Decoy SN. I could detect more torsional flex in the Mondraker when loaded up in high-G turns, as well as less deflection when pinging through angular gullies and rock gardens. Don’t take that to mean that the Dune is unduly flexy – it’s not – but the Decoy is considerably stiffer when slamming into berms and landing big jumps.

There’s plenty to like about the Mondraker Dune, but a few things that need improvement.

But the Dune is built primarily for enduro tracks, rather than bike parks, and in rooty, rocky, natural environments, its combination of exceptional grip, greater compliance, and that forgiving riding position has the edge. It’s just a shame that the BB is too high and the saddle gets in the way.