The Review | MDE Damper 650B enduro bike
MDE’s are handmade in Turino Italy by a small company led by Federico Biora. The Damper is MDE’s most aggressive enduro bike and is designed for the rigours of enduro; from riding bike parks to racing the EWS. The Damper 650b frame with Fox CTD shock costs £1999. The Damper is highly adaptable, available in 170 or 160mm of travel; changed by running a shock with a different stroke length, and with the 65.5 head angle is perfect for aggressive riding.
When it comes to sizing, the medium frame has a 579mm top tube and combined with the 35mm stem left things a little cramped in the cockpit area (I’m 170 cm tall), which leads me to the most exciting feature of the bike. Because the frames are handmade, for a small fee they can change the colour, top tube length and the head angle, enough variations to keep even the pickiest of riders happy. The craftsmanship of MDEs frames is truly stunning, the polished frame looks great and is so easy to clean. Every weld is perfect and the red anodized linkages look great, it is as much a work of art as mountain bike frame.
The Damper 650b came spec’d with SRAM x11, a nice luxury along with Mavic’s new Crossmax XL WTS wheel set which were light and stiff, the suspension was provided by BOS and with their reputation as one of the best suspension manufactures I was excited to try them.
With aggressive geometry, a burly build and long travel the damper is clearly biased towards descending; but surprisingly it climbs relatively well. The steep seat angle gives a neutral climbing position while the floating linkage does a good job to reduce pedal bob.
The Boss kirk shock has a Pedaling optimizer lever, which doesn’t actually do a lot until about 50% down the stroke were it rapidly stiffens, unfortunately this means it doesn’t really reduce pedal bob much more. However when combined with the steep seat angle it gives the damper plenty of grip and is capable to ascend the trickiest of climbs with ease.
I spent a few weeks riding the Damper on a range of different trails, I was lucky enough to spend a weekend in Scotland riding some of the EWS tracks around Innerleithen. These trails are steep, tight, rooty and rocky and the Bike was in its element, here I was thankful for the shorter top tube squeezing through the tight trees. The Linkage is a derivative of the VPP and is very linear with a gradual ramp up towards the end of the stroke, giving a nice plush feel through the travel balanced by good damping from the boss kirk shock to avoiding blowing through, Small bump sensitivity is good helping to find grip on the slippy trails. The Linkage ramps up towards the end of the travel helping to absorb the big hits which it does well, unlike some other long travel bikes this linkage makes the most of all the travel.
I also rode a local fast rocky trail that I know well and here the damper was simply one of the best bikes I had ridden. The Damper is very fun and poppy, hoping rocks with ease but also able to carry momentum when landing back in them, the 445mm chain stays keep the bike lively. The MDE gives a very planted and confidence inspiring ride, it likes to be slammed into the roughest of sections, perfect for an aggressive rider, forgiving even the biggest of mistakes.
The slack head angle was a bit of a handful around the tight turns and a little more effort was needed, also the bike felt a slightly too tall on the really tight slow sections. The mud clearance on the boss Deville fork left a lot to be desired, and I found both the shock and fork tricky to set with all the different adjusters. There’s a lot to be said for the ‘set and forget’ simplicity of a pike and monarch plus combo.
The complete bike weighed around 14.8kg, which was heavier than my normal ride, however it didn’t feel it thanks to the light and stiff wheel set and sram x11 all helping to keep rotating mass down. I had a few long days in the saddle of the MDE and it can definitely go the distance without as much effort as you would expect, the neutral riding position also kept me comfy with no back pain complaints.
The Bottom Line
The Damper is a bruiser of a bike and is most at home on flat out rocky trails, it likes to be ridden hard. While it was a bit of handful on the slow tight stuff it can certainly still hold its own and is very versatile for a long travel bike. The Damper is a super fun bike, ideal for smashing downhill runs but still being able to go the distance, With stunning craftsmanship, amazing finish and lots of customization options you will certainly get some attention riding this bike on the trails.
Words: Andrew Cooper Photos: Robin Schmitt