Mongoose Black Diamond Triple

Executive Summary about Mongoose Black Diamond Triple by Brady
Mini downhill bikes are growing in popularity and rightfully so, allow people to use one bike to do both trail riding and light-to-medium downhilling. The geometry of these bikes is modeled after their larger downhill counterparts. Some of these bikes are also marketed as freeride bikes and they are also fully capable of filling that niche.
Over the past two years, Mongoose has been getting their foot back into the door of high end bike market with their introduction of the Freedrive suspension design first seen on the ECD downhill bike. They have outfitted an entire line of suspension bikes with the Freedrive system, has the wheel path of a single pivot bike because functionally, it is a single pivot bike – a high pivot single pivot design to be exact. However, the major shortcomings of a high single pivot bike have been overcome with the Freedrive system, overcomes this characteristic of a high pivot by moving the bottom bracket rearward with the suspension movement. This keeps the chainstay lengths constant and there by allows the bike to manual like a typical bike. The rear end of the BD3 is identical in structure and design to the rear end of their downhill model, the ECD, and can be adjusted to either 6” or 7.5” of rear wheel travel. All pivots of the frame ride on bearings to provide smooth movement.
The geometry of the BD3 is great. Mongoose chose a slack 66 degree head angle which is perfect for this bike. The slack head angle of the BD3 makes it perform great as a mini downhill bike.
The bike is speced with some very good components. Avid Juicy 7's provide the stopping power for the bike. The testing of the bike lasted for 8 months, during which time I used the BD3 over every type of terrain that I ride. I used the BD3 for trail riding, freeriding, and racing DH. I learned that the BD3 is a very versatile bike. At first, I restricted using the bike to only DH trails. Pedaling the BD3 was much easier than anticipated for a bike with this amount of travel and weight. Extended trail rides offered a good opportunity to explore the handling and pedaling characteristics of the bike. Ride quality of the rear suspension is top notch as expected from a high pivot. High pivot bikes make for great straight line performance. The 66 SL makes for a perfect match for this bike. As noted before, the wheelbase of the bike lengthens as the bike goes through its travel. Turning prowess was the worst aspect of the BD3. While braking for turns and general trail braking, there never was any noticeable brake jack.
Overall, the BD3 was a very easy bike to maintain and not many things went wrong with the bike. Value is where the Mongoose BD3 shines above all other bikes in its class. The BD3 has one of the best spec of components of any small freeride bike for the price range. There aren’t many other bikes on the market that have the BD3’s level of components and a sub $3000 price tag. While there are minor issues with the bike and some may say that the bike is heavy for its size, to get a bike that performs this well with top shelf parts, you’d have to spend close to $5000 for a boutique bike. MSRP on the BD3 rings in at $2999.