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TECH NEWS
Just in: Mango Point R road bike
The Point R is an aluminium road bike from young British brand Mango Bikes, and for 2017 it has upgraded the equipment and now offers a full Shimano 5800 11-speed groupset. The pictured bike starts at £849.99, but we’ve got the upgrade Vision Team 30 wheels which cost an extra £69.99. This bike hasn't officially launched yet, we've managed to get one of the first production bikes. It'll be available to pre-order next week through its website, which is still showing the previous model. Same frame, just different equipment)
- Buying your first road bike — everything you need to know
Mango Bikes made its name with customisable singlespeed bikes aimed at students and commuters, but it has since branched out with its first fully fledged road bike, with a focus on providing an affordable entry into road cycling.
You won’t find any bikes over a £1,000 in the Mango Bikes lineup, it has firmly concentrated on making really good affordable bikes for people new to cycling. And from first inspection, it doesn’t look like it has cut many corners with the Point R. It has a really smart looking frame with hydroformed tube shapes, smooth welds and internal cable routing giving it an expensive appearance. The frame is available in a range of colours, we’re loving this blue, it almost matches the road.cc team kit.
Other details include a carbon fibre fork with a tapered steerer tube and mudguard mounts, making it a great option for winter training or year-round commuting. The frame is offered in three sizes with a geometry aimed at making it an easy and accessible bike to ride, with a long wheelbase for a stable ride and tall head tube for a comfortable riding position. It combines a slightly longer top tube with a short 80mm stem to provide good reach and nimble steering.
As previously mentioned, the bike gets a full Shimano 105 groupset. The chainset is compact with 50/34 chainrings combined with an 11-28t cassette, so you’ve got plenty of low gears for getting up climbs. Long drop R451 brake calipers provide the necessary clearance for wide tyres and mudguards, the bike coming with 25mm wide Continental Ultrasport II tyres.
Mango Bikes uses its own-brand saddle with chromoly rails and matching bar tape, and Chasewood for the compact handlebar, stem and seatpost. Most new bikes don’t come with pedals but Mango Bikes flips that and offers a choice of a flat pedal of Shimano SPD-SL if you want to clip-in.
If you don’t want to pay the extra £70 for the Vision wheels, the stock bike comes with Chasewood branded wheels.
The bike weighs 9.38kg (20.67lb) on our scales. Stu Kerton is currently riding the bike so watch out for his review soon. www.mangobikes.com
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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13 comments
I brought a nice bright yellow Point R through the cycle to work scheme back in May and have done just shy of 600 miles, short commutes to 50 mile sunday rides. (This is my "2nd" bike N+1 and all that!!)
I went for the upgraded wheels (a must considering they RRP at around £200) and the 105, although mine has a FSA chainset and Tektro brakes.
I have since upgraded the brakes to what is in the review above and swithched out the seat post (carbon) and put a shorter stem (I am short!).
As someone else has already mentioned, no reason to upgrade the saddle as it it is Mango branded Charge Spoon.
It is a comfortable bike, that likes to be ridden, is fairly quick (some of my Strava segments improved) and is happy going up hills as well (Buster Hill up Harvesting lane for those that know it!)
I purchased this blind as there were no real reviews 6 months ago and can honestly say it was good purchase.
Only downside, Mango just need to up the customer service side of things a little.
Actually there was a review published on this very site last September.
I bought on one myself: blue ( a differen shade from available now) with Sora groupset, and I'm very happy with it. I upgraded the brakes though.
Yeah, I've seen quite a few people complaing about not being able to get in contact with them, or orders not turnng up, or even in one case the wrong bike being sent out! Not good, and tbh if I was buying now it would put me off ordering from them.
I have to say thought that when I bought mine a few months ago I had no problems commincating with them.
Their website said £650 when I last checked. The website picture shows FSA chainset though.
Don't think their website has been updated with the new models yet, just checking with them now about that
i have a Point AR, but the saddles and the handlebar tapes are the same. The saddle is actually a re-branded Charge Spoon, it is a very good saddle imho. However, the bar tape is a mess, but it's the most unimportant part of a bicycle.
Actually the Charge Spoon is based on a standard design from saddle maker Velo, and has the same outline as many OEM and cheaper aftermarket saddles, such as the Madison Flux.
Actually the Spoon came first, launched I think I recall back in 2007, and was developed between Charge and Velo, one of the biggest manufacturers of saddles. Guess after a few years of it being exclusive it's been made available to other brands because there are lots of Spoon-shaped saddles out there. No bad thing, it's a good shape
are the tubes solid metal?
how on earth did they make the bike weigh that much?
every stem below 120mm looks retarded btw
and 11-28 makes no sense with 50-34. Rather a 12-28 or 13-29. the 11t would be untouched in 99% of the time.
You seem to be missing the point. The bikes aimed at an entry into road cycling for the best possible price. 11-28 cassettes are the most popular by far and thus were probably the best priced in a bulk buy. Also 100 -110mm is the norm for OEM stems. Are you saying all stems that bikes are supplied with look retarded ? Each to their own.
Personally it looks a pretty good and well specced entry into the game, yes its reasonably heavy but at that price point (considering the 105 kit) its fine.
It weighs that much because the frame design is very simple, hence why the price can be so low with what appears to be a great spec.
If everyone only ever judge bikes by the kit hanging off them and the price, then it's a race to the bottom in terms of frame quality.
Just in case anyone thinks I'm saying the Mango frame is rubbish, I'm sure it's not, but for that price it clearly won't be up with the Specialized, Merida and Giant frames.
Regarding the frame, what do people want from a frame.....looks maybe, stiffness, comfort, declas....
I got my bike a month before doing a 2 day charity ride to Amsterdam (From London) and was going to do it my Pinarello Marvel (sorry) and this is true, I was seriously tempted to do it on the Mango as I find the ride more comfortable! The Pinarello won still won though, although I did take the Vision Team 30's off the Mango!
That is some smooth welding. Nice minimalist look.
For a first bike, that'd be really special.
Well done Mango.