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The Crafty is Mondraker’s plus-sized alternative option to the fantastic Foxy and its unique Forward Geometry handling lets you really push the high-volume, high-velocity advantages too.
Faster in the rough
Plus tyres are a whole new story of pros and cons, but the bottom line is that they go faster the rougher it gets and our final blast down the rocky, rooty trails of Peille saw the Crafty vanish off into the distance leaving regular 29ers in its wake. That syncs with our latest head to head testing on other bikes/tyre formats, and our opinion is certainly getting more positive the more we ride plus.
The over-15kg weight is a definite acceleration- and altitude-gain issue. Traction is outstanding though, so you can winch up crazy steep and/or rough slopes if you’re patient.
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The super short stem makes for sharper handling than on many plus machines
The combination of super-quick reactions from the barely-there stem and massive baseline stability from the extra long wheelbase means the steering is more involving and alive than the sludgy feel of most plus bikes we’ve ridden and braking traction is amazing if you do overstep the mark.
Smooth suspension pairing
Despite the thin walls necessary to keep weight bearable the Maxxis tyres survived a ton of rock abuse throughout testing. The super-smooth Yari and Monarch Plus shock combo gives excellent control of hits bigger than the tyres absorb too, though compensating for their untamed bounce in the rebound settings isn’t easy.
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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