Orbea wild 2023 vs Mondraker crafty r - please help choose

[serhio4848]

Hey gang!
Can u please help me decide on 2 options:
1. Mondraker crafty r, 2022
2. Orbea wild 2023 base aluminium model

They are both roughly 6k

So fed up choosing. Tried them both - seems like Mondraker has better equipment - fox fork vs rock and seems like a bit more heavy. I like Mondraker but seems like all the reviews prefer Orbea. And of course open for any better alternatives for 6k

Many thanks for your effort and opinion!

 

[valecek]

I have a mondraker crafty R 2021. my friend had a orbea. all this bikes are from spain.

when I have a choise, I wil buy a orbea. for me is more playfull, and I prefer rock shox ( 1/4 price for service )

orbea had a weight limit 135 kg, mondraker 150 kg.

at least, you must know, how much money you like to spend to upgrade...
but as we know it is a diagnosis

 

[Paulquattro]

Mondraker all day long , i would never give Orbea a penny more of my money but that's another story.

Mondraker has a more reached out riding position so really depends what your after in all honesty as we all ride and want different things from our bikes due too riding style and body dimensions .

 

[Bob88]

The cube 160 team is available in a nice livery this year. Carbon frame, 5k and enough change in your budget to upgrade to axs.....

 

[Uktonyb77]

100% the mondraker . Orbea’s after sales is pretty awful and even a well known brand of shops in the UK are looking to drop Orbea bikes completely in their product offering due to warranty issues and after sales support. Orbea as a brand exploded during lockdown but now have real problems fulfilling order book and dealing with problems.

Having riden the Orbea and now owning the crafty carbon XR hands down the mondraker is far more inspiring and confident to ride even in the worst Uk conditions.

The ride position on the mondraker gives you the feeling of complete control and your never left feeling overwhelmed. For a sub 23kg full fat bike you never feel that weight when chucking it around.

 

[Enduro4me]

I have a 2022 Crafty RR and it is simply amazing. I rode a 2022 Wild and preferred the Crafty. The 2023 Orbea Wild is all new and looks amazing on paper but I haven’t had a chance to ride it yet. All I can say is all of my friends who have tried my Crafty out have loved it. A few of them even sold their bikes and made the switch.

My Reasons for the Crafty over the 2022 Wild:

1. Geometry - as a tall rider it just felt more comfortable. I like the longer reach and longer wheel base. The bike just plows through the rough stuff with no fuss. I tend to like rough technical terrain.

2. Suspension - the kinematics seem to fit my riding style better. I like that it has a supportive platform and doesn’t blow through the travel early. It is very stable at higher speeds.

The 2 issues I had with the bike as specked were brakes and wheels.

The SRAM Code Rs were replaced with Magura MT7 immediately. The Code Rs were unridable. What a world of difference!

The Mavic wheels just refused to stay true and felt flimsy. I found a lightly used set of DT Swiss EX1700 at a fraction of the cost of new and sent the Mavic set in for warranty. Interestingly my son who also has a Crafty RR with the same wheels has had 0 issues with the Mavic wheels. He hits way bigger jumps than I do but weighs considerably less.

With upgraded brakes and wheels the bike is amazing. I did swap out the stem and bars to the 1up but that was just personal preference. The Stock set up is totally workable.

I feel like the Crafty is a total sleeper.

 

[yorkshire89]

100% the mondraker . Orbea’s after sales is pretty awful

Mondraker's support isn't the best either tbh. Mine came fitted with the wrong Q factor cranks from new, causing the crank arm to hit the chainstay. Took 9 months for the replacement rear triangle to arrive.

I bought a spare battery cover so I could easily swap batteries mid ride, that took about 4 months to arrive and didn't come with the rubber seals I was expecting, although that's my fault for not checking.
I then ordered a seals set, the spare parts list appears to show a full set, but they only sent out half the kit so had to do another order, overall about 8 months of a battery cover sitting unused.

I love the way the bike rides but I wouldn't be in a rush to buy another Mondraker.

 

[Uktonyb77]

Mixed experiences then with their support. I’ve found them flawless and very helpful but that’s dealing direct with the guys in elche so maybe that’s why a better service perhaps if your for instance going through an intermediary.

Even when my crafty carbon XR limited edition 2023 arrived I wasn’t happy with the ohlin fork tune and had it all sorted within 5 days start to finish.

Technical procedure to downsize the 750w to 625w powertube was also provided within only a couple of hours of speaking with them.

So from my own experience I can’t fault them. My only niggle is trying to get the exact spec from them in regards to the internal routed integrated headset fitted in my bike. I’ve done nearly 1000 miles in Uk slop conditions and the headset is now suffering so need to do some maintenance on it already.