Features
Mongoose Womens Silva Mountain Bicycle features is:
- Aluminum MTB frame with Hydro formed tubing is strong and durable; front suspension fork smooth's out bumps and thumps on the trail
- Front and rear v-brakes ensure quick stops out on the trail
- 21 speeds with Shimano rear derailleur for easy shifting
- Light alloy rims and 26x2. 1 inch (diameter x width) tires roll over anything
- Strong riser handlebar with colored end plugs completes the sweet MTB look
Reviews
Below are some critical reviews about Mongoose Womens Silva Mountain BicycleWe bought this for our daughter, decided to spend a little more than $100 bike to get one more durable. The bike arrived quickly and was well packaged. Only found one scratch in the fork/shock. The instructions are very generic and include every possible option for a bike. I was able to get through them and have assembled bikes before. The handle bar Allen screw was near impossible to remove; the line must have impact driven the fastener for quite some time. Tried my two hand held Allen wrenches, no luck. Had to use a 3/8 socket wrench with an Allen driver, most people won’t have this. After assembly several adjustments were needed.The brakes needed to be adjusted. Not too difficult but cheap stamped steel. Does not pull as evenly as I’d like.The front derailleur is a nightmare. After struggling for over an hour and constantly having it hit the derailleur in several speeds I found the factory set the derailleur about 1/4" too high. After adjustment it was better but still impossible to get every gear without hitting the derailleur. I have a few high end bikes and have rebuilt them several times. Those derailleurs are much easier to set and not as sensitive. Working jointly with the front derailleur is the three speed grip shifter. The grip shifter is extremely poorly designed. It has 5 index settings for 3 gears? The concept appears to be you have to rotate 2 clicks to get to each gear. This is insane; every other grip shifter I have seen has one index/click for each gear. It’s hard enough for me to remember much less explaining to a seven year old. I was able to get the bike working well only in the middle gear. We told our daughter not to change the front speeds 1 - 3, only the back 1 - 7.Tire spacing is way too close. As another user commented your can feet can hit front tire when turning. If you do place the balls of your feet on the pedal you get about an inch of clearance. If your feet slip forward a little bit you’ll feel the tire when you turn. See pics.The only Shimano component is the rear derailleur, the front derailleur, grip shifts, brakes and break controls are cheap. Surprisingly replacement Shimano components are not that expensive, I will likely be doing that as this bike should last several years with her height. Ridiculous to have to do on a new bike.The frame is nicely welded and sturdy. However awkwardly designed for a bike carrier.Overall I would not recommend.
My daughter had a love/hate relationship with this bike at first. Took some time to get things adjusted. Like others had problems with the handlebar stem bolt and the bolt that holds the handlebars to the stem piece. Several times she came back angry and once crashed because the handlebars kept moving. Eventually I got the stem bolt tight enough it has not moved in a while. As for the bolt that holds the handlebars. It would not stay until I noticed that it 1 was a poor design compared to my other bikes and 2 it did not have a lock washer to keep it from loosening. I added a lock washer and so far so good on that one at well. Not sure if this was an engineering miss but expect it was just a way to save a couple pennies on production.
Mixed feelings so far. Didn't have any broken or missing pieces in the box but did see the concern with the handlebar stem to getting tight enough. I added a crush washer and some friction onto the stem that hopefully keeps things tight, so far so good. Overall, components feel cheap. This is a $180 bike - I am not sure in what way this is better than bikes half the price. I was hoping I am getting something better than a $100 bike but I am not sure - brakes, shifter all seem very cheap. Bike drive train makes some clunking noise when I ride it, but not when my daughter rides it. Shouldn't happen but okay so far. It's difficult to find a good bike in this price range I guess. We also bought a Mongoose Status 2.2 which costs the same and is heavier (due to reae suspension) but feels more solid overall.
Below are some positive reviews about Mongoose Womens Silva Mountain Bicycle
This was a tough one because the reviews weren’t all that great, but there were only 5 of them at the time. I took a chance for my daughter’s 10th birthday. She loves it so far. Assembly really wasn’t too difficult. I’ve put together some whoppers in the past as well. I took note of the loose neck screw that some complained about but so far have not had an issue and everything appears nice and tight. I had to make adjustments to the brakes and that was probably the most taxing but not difficult at all. The difficult part was trying to do all that while my daughter was anxiously watching me. But hey, so far so good. Oh, the seat came with a small gouge in it. I am going to contact the seller and I’ll update on that as it transpires.
We bought this bike a week or two ago, and our 11 year old daughter loves it! The thing is, the description doesn't at all say the inches of the bike! From the comments, it sounded like it is a 26" bike. What came is 24". It's still perfect for her, but hopefully it will be enough once she's full grown. She's almost 5 foot now.
Arrived on time and in perfect condition. It was already about 80% put together already, so it did not take long to finish it. My daughter loves it, and it is the perfect size. She is 10 years old and 5'1" and the bike should continue to fit her for the next couple of years. I definitely recommend this bike.
