Roll over all sorts of difficult terrain with ease on the Argus Sport fat tire bike by Mongoose. And the Argus’ Tectonic T2 aluminum frame makes it lighter and stiffer than ever. Fat bikes are easier to find and more mongoose fat bike affordable than ever before. The fat bike market has exploded in recent years.
Kid sized fat bike frames are rare so taking him out this winter will be a unique experience. With that said, it was fun seeing my son experience something truly different on the dirt. Given my profession as a mountain bike journalist and product reviewer, it’s not mongoose bicycle unusual for friends and neighbors to ask me for bike recommendations.
The Mongoose Switchback is best for riding pavement, bike paths, and gravel roads. It’s fine for most green- and beginner-rated trails, though when it comes to trail riding, I recommend choosing smooth ones. There’s a slight wobble as the front wheel rolls, which I noticed right out of the box, and the wobble has become more pronounced over time.
Brands include Specialized, Mongoose, Polaris, Kona, Gravity, Kawasaki, Borealis and more! Manufacturers are creating frames out of tons of different materials including aluminum, carbon, titanium, bamboo, real steel, and Wal-Mart steel. Most fat-bikes that you will come across have a fully rigid frame. However fat bikes with front fork suspension and full-body suspension have started to emerge. Compared to bikes from other major brands like Specialized and Trek, the Mongoose Switchback Expert offers a pretty similar value.
Gradual climbing up our neighborhood trails was OK for a while. Eventually he would tire out and need the tow rope. As you can imagine, my 70-pound child really struggles pushing 50% of his body weight uphill with the Argus. The Trax tow rope was an absolute must with this bike.
This is one change that could make sense for some buyers, though percentage-wise, it’s a big addition. The weight of the bike is nearly 34 pounds (15.04 kg) and it shows. That is almost as heavy as MY full suspension fat bike. Most mountain bike steerer tubes are designed for tapered headtubes.
The stock seat/torture device was replaced with an XL wide seat before it was even assembled. Replaced it with a Sunlite Cloud-9, Bicycle Suspension Cruiser Saddle, Cruiser Gel that you can see in the first photo. The first thing I noticed was that braking pulsed because the rotors were not ground properly.
Mechanical disc brakes make use of 160 mm rotors. One of the main components of any bike is the drive train. The Argus’ drive train uses a 2×8 system with a Microshift derailleur in the front and a Shimano Tourney in the rear. Taking the Argus out was a different experience than the norm and we both had fun.
The Mongoose Switchback Expert is capable of popping off small roots and rocks in the trail, and it has proven to be durable on the landings. I worried about flat tires so I added a bit more pressure than I usually run on my other bikes—about 20-25psi—and I recommend buyers do the same. The drivetrain is generally pretty quiet when pedaling on smooth surfaces, though things start to clang the faster (and rougher!) you ride. mongoose dirt bike One of the selling points of the Mongoose Switchback Expert is the tapered head tube, which the Comp version does not offer. The idea is that a buyer could upgrade the fork down the road to something better, but honestly it’s not going to be worth the expense. The SR Suntour XCE coil fork is truly entry level, and while it absorbs bumps in the trail it’s heavy and harsh compared to a more expensive fork with an air spring.
The bike has a clean, modern look thanks to internal cable routing and a short 40mm stem with medium-wide, 720mm bars. The geometry is fairly modern for a department store bike, with a 66.5° head tube angle and a 75° seat tube angle. We started Rascal Rides when Parker was born and we didn’t want to give up our passion for biking. Over the years, we’ve tested hundreds of kids bikes, helmets, bike trailers, and more.