Ordered a Mongoose Maurice..fingers crossed
 

Last week Performance Bike had the Maurice as their "deal of the day". It's the cro-moly version and a decent looking ss/fixed gear bike with components that are a upgrade from BikesDirect ss/fixies, especially at the then $250 starting price . I hit it with a 10% coupon on top of their deal price and with some points I had, it came in well under the $200. mark delivered w/tax. Even at their now listed $299. price, the current coupon code for 10% off makes it a deal.
I can't see any weak areas of the bike, especially for the price. Does anyone here ride one or seen one in person? Local Performance stores do not carry the bike, but no big deal if not a good fit or a cheesy build. If I don't like it for whatever reason, let the store (where I had them ship it) keep it and refund my card.
Pics to come when I get it. Fingers crossed...lol.

http://www.performancebike.com/bikes..._1060457_-1___

this guy rides for mongoose, and rides one in the video... pretty positive he's not riding a stock fork though...

http://vimeo.com/6200166

Looks like a solid deal! I haven't seen any around, but it's an attractive bike. Definitely a steal if you got it under $200!

for 200 dollars you can not really go wrong

Mongoose gets a bad rap because of all the crappy DUI-cruiser mountain bikes out there (even though Mongoose BMX bikes were pretty awesome back in the day). That looks like a damn good deal though!

Come to think of it, I've seen this bike in person when I was recently down in Richmond . It has a cool, sloped-crown fork and the blue color is really nice. I say you made a good choice.

:thumb:

Thanks
 

Thanks for the video link...holy crap that guy can ride. As a guy who is on the bad side of 50, I still feel alive and young when riding road and especially mt. biking. I had a Schwinn Madison and gave it to my nephew in a generous moment and really missed the simplicity of these bikes. So here's to simplicity, care free riding, and not being concerned about high end Campy, SRAM, Shimano, Mavic, carbon fiber, or $200. saddles. Like the days when I had a Montgomery Ward bike with twin baskets for my paper route..heavy, fugley, but served it purpose of putting wind in my face.

heck yeah. that video is insanucrazy.

i love the mongoose bikes the last year or so... the croix elite is my ultimate salivation bike.

I told my friend to get one of these as he's been wanting a road bike for a while (had a miyata with a trashed derailleur that we ghetto converted to single speed. it was stolen though). I saw on the local craigslist that cr-mo road frames from the 80's converted to fixed or singlespeed were 250... this was an extra 16 after tax and shipping (i got 266 total since I don't have any points or anything). only downside is it just shipped today, bound for the sacramento store. It apparently won't get there until the 23rd though. not my bike though so no big.

only strange thing about this bike is the sizing. a medium has a 58cm seat tube?

Sounds like someone's porn name.

My friend got his bike in at performance today. After bringing it home I had to do a few adjustments. I rewrapped the bars since the tape was way too overlapped and the finishing tape was hideous. I also went through and tightened everything down. I will (btw, cant type with apostrophes since firefox isnt recognizing this as a text box and is opening a damn search bar every time i type one) get the negatives out of the way first:

-pedals: theyre like those alien sneaker pedals. they have a clip mounting system very similar to the old shimano triangular aero system, but the clips are very short and hard to get a foot into. theyre more likely to get smooshed when trying to get in, they need to push higher up. theyre also narrow so my foot gets caught up in the nylong strap. I threw on my plemonsco with some west german touring pedals from my ride to test (but my friend has to go find his own pedals lol)

-seatpost. thanks mongoose for speccing a 26.4 seatpost, those are super common. at least you put bottom of the barrel on here with a cruiser style seatpost (straight kind with a clamp that you attach to the saddle). on that note the saddle isnt too bad. not terribly uncomfortable, not terribly comfortable. It is too bulky though. not a bad complaint

-rim tape. they used some crappy thick electrical tape in here. I pumped it up to 100 psi, and it tore at some of the rim holes, leading to a flat. Didnt think to check for quality rim tape. luckily I had some extra velox i threw in there.

speaking of rims, this one is a bit strange. it uses alexrims to formulas, but it uses PC18s. they fit 25s how most rims fit 23s, so theyre a couple millimeters wider. not a bad deal, theyre not super wise obviously, and they fit a schrader tube. nice for commuting since you dont have to worry about an adapter and gas stations seem more likely to have pumps for schraders than prestas. the wheels are heavy though. but i dont think weight weenies would be interested in this anyways.

the frame is nice quality. the welding isnt the greatest, imo the kilo has more well done welds. some of the "c"s are bigger than others, it isnt terribly uniform, but its by no means dangerous. I was surprised to see it came with a sexy investment cast lugged crown fork. Its all covered in a very nice, if a bit bright, sparkle blue. the zip ties holding up the rear brake cable arent the most aesthetically pleasing, but many people would presumably be removing that anyways.

the bullhorns supplied are nice, have a slight bit of drop to them. brake levers are nice, brake calipers feel a bit cheap, but they operate just fine. brake lines have some stretch to them.

well, for my test ride, I was not using the stock pedals (plemons on touring pedals) nor stock front wheel (hed jet glued to a schwalbe milano. the front was flat due to crap rim tape). maybe it was my savage front wheel, but it felt like this thing could really fly. The geometry was responsive, and I felt it to be a more aggressive and quicker feeling frame than the clockwork my friend has. seat tube is a little more relaxed, but handling felt very similar to my friends kilo. not as responsive as my njs frame, still had a bit of a mushy feel that I cant really describe, but firmer feeling than the aforementioned clockwork. maybe this is something flexing? i dont think im powerful enough for be inducing flex, i have no clue what im feeling. the clockwork feels very similar to this mongoose. Im sure the sst feels closer to the same with like handlebars. I still feel as though my trek conversion feels more responsive and stiff.

anyways, too much text. im sure im leaving stuff out, so ill try to answer any questions. heres some pics of the bike:
http://i437.photobucket.com/albums/q.../maurice-2.jpg

http://i437.photobucket.com/albums/q...urice-fork.jpg

http://i437.photobucket.com/albums/q...d/maurice1.jpg

http://i437.photobucket.com/albums/q...e-seatpost.jpg

That's seriously a great deal for 200 bucks.

Glad your bud got his bike. Unfortunately, my online order and follow up phone call to Performance was a cluster flick deal. After ordering online, I followed up 2 days later with a phone call to check on a ship date. They said they were not sure if my size was in stock, but they did put a hold on my credit card. I asked why would they not know if in stock...I mean pretty easy to check if they use any basic inventory software. She then says that I see you are having it sent to store and that takes extra time..like up to a week longer and again "if in stock". WTF? Why was I not told of this up front? After waiting 2 more days and no confirmation on a call that they have my size in stock and AFTER finding out they will NOT HONOR the Friday "special" price of $249., I said cancel..NOW! This is my first time buying a bike online with Performance, but have never had a problem with 3 other bikes purchased at my local Performance store. Thing is that after looking at the pics, I'm glad I did not get it. Not knocking the Maurice at $249. (and now listed at $315.), but I'm going to spend a little more to get higher quality thus saving the upgrade costs on a few of the cheesy parts. Hello Madison on a 20% off deal.

The frame won't be much different that a Madison but good luck. I'd say that it is a great deal, even at $315

I really like the Madison frame for it's apparent quality. Welds look flawless, paint is perfect, and the overall look is fine. Yes, agree the Maurice is a very decent bike, but I guess I'm still pissed at the whole transaction that was not right.

I would be too. Bad customer service and poor communication prompt me to forget that certain places exist.

Oh, jimx...maybe you'd be interested that I found this tonight:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Schwinn-Madison-...item3ef91e5c5c

If it were a large, I'd snatch it up for myself!

jimx, I think the problem is with Performance and their business practice.
My story: At the end of October, I went to Performance store and ordered the Mongoose Maurice, price was $299 less $50 discount per ad on Performance website. I ordered eventhough they added $30 for shipping charges. I put down 50% at the store with the balance to be paid on delivery. As I left the store and looked closer at the receipt, the recipt was showing $299 and sales tax on this figure, not the discounted price on the website. When I went to pick-up the bike I brought up error on the receipt. I said I would pay $249 ($50 discount), $30 shipping for a total of $279 plus tax not $299 plus tax.
Obviously, the manager and I got into an argument and he finally agreed to the original website price when I ordered the bike. I also had a copy of the Performance website ad with the Mongoose pricing in-hand.
As far as I am concerned Performace is a bait and switch outfit. Little stock in the store.
The Performance store in Santa Monica is a far cry from what the Supergo independentally/owned store was a few years ago.
Gary