Val di Sole, 2016. Dust in the air, this brutal, dust-dry track through the forest, called: Black Snake. Feared. Legendary. Crime scene of the 2016 Downhill World Championships. Three riders stand next to each other in the finish area: Danny Hart, Lauri Greenland and Florent Payet. Gold, silver, bronze. All on the same bike: the Mondraker Summum. A complete triple victory at the World Championships - and the moment when the Summum finally achieved icon status. No bike in the history of mountain biking had ever achieved this.
The Downhill World Championships return to Val di Sole in 2026. And Mondraker is bringing a new Summum with it. Not a retro remake, say the Spaniards, but a radically advanced race tool.
Developed in the World Cup, not in the lab
The new Summum was raced for two seasons. The Mondraker Factory DH Team tested on World Cup courses, tweaked, discarded and adjusted. Rónán Dunne won a World Cup in Les Gets in 2025 and the silver medal at the Red Bull Hardline in Tasmania, Ryan Pinkerton took the US championship title in 2025. Development and racing reality ran in parallel - just as they should with real race bikes.
The centrepiece remains the revised Zero Suspension System with 200 millimetres of travel at the front and rear. More sensitive in the mid-stroke range, more stable at high speed - exactly where modern downhill routes are decisive: in berms, rock gardens and off-camber sections.
The bike is ridden in a mullet set-up: 29 inches at the front for smoothness and precision, 27.5 inches at the rear for manoeuvrability. Tyre clearance up to 2.6 inches.
The heart of the bike: the solid 6061 Stealth aluminium frame. Yes, that's right: aluminium. Like many bike manufacturers, Mondraker is switching from carbon fibre back to aluminium.
The lines of the new Summum are clearer, everything looks tidy and functional. Change to the predecessor: The seat stays run deeper into the main frame, the shock is flatter in the rear triangle.
27 ways to the perfect setup
Perhaps the most striking feature is the variety of settings.
Three central adjustment options result in 27 geometry variants.
- Reach adjustment ±5 mm via the headset
- Steering angle and bottom bracket fine-tuning via flip chip (±0.35° / ±5 mm)
- Chainstay length between 450 and 460 mm
The steering angle is a slack 62.5 degrees at the base. The reach ranges from 450 mm (M) to 510 mm (XL). The stack remains constant - a clear statement in favour of a defined front-end feel. The Summum is therefore not an "off-the-peg" bike, but a platform. Racers can trim it for high-speed stability or make it more agile for tight, technical courses.
Two versions, one attitude. Big Attitude!
Both models weigh 18.9 kilos - downhill realism instead of lightweight marketing.
Summum RR:
RockShox Boxxer Ultimate, Vivid Coil, SRAM XX DH AXS T-Type. Electronic, uncompromising, high-end race set-up. Maven Ultimate brakes with 220 mm front disc - maximum control, even when things get really steep. Price: 8499 €
Summum R:
Fox 40 Float, DHX2, mechanical SRAM GX DH. Classic, robust, proven. For all those who prefer to ride with a Bowden cable rather than a battery.
Both roll on 30 mm rims with Maxxis Assegai at the front and Minion DHR II at the rear - a combination that is almost the law in downhill riding. By the way: A frame kit is also available for € 2999. Mondraker has worked on the details: internal cable routing without rattling (that's the promise!), large down tube protection, integrated mudguard, standardised bearing sizes for easy maintenance. It is this mixture of engineering thinking and racing practice that has characterised the Summum for years.
Geometry of the three available sizes
| M | L | XL | |
| Seat tube length | 400 mm | 400 mm | 400 mm |
| Top tube length | 710 mm | 740 mm | 770 mm |
| Bottom bracket drop | -5 mm | -5 mm | -5 mm |
| Bottom bracket height | 350 mm | 350 mm | 350 mm |
| Chainstay length | 455 mm | 455 mm | 455 mm |
| Actual seat angle | 78° | 78° | 78° |
| Effective seat angle | 70° | 70° | 70° |
| Steering angle | 62,5° | 62,5° | 62,5° |
| Fork offset | 52 mm | 52 mm | 52 mm |
| Wheelbase | 1285.4 mm | 1315.4 mm | 1345.4 mm |
| Head tube length | 120 mm | 120 mm | 120 mm |
| Reach | 450 mm | 480 mm | 510 mm |
| Stack | 642.6 mm | 642.6 mm | 642.6 mm |
Back to Val di Sole
When the world championships return to Val di Sole in 2026, a circle will be complete. The new Summum is not being launched as a nostalgia project, but as the next evolutionary stage of a bike that has long since made racing history.
Back then, three riders stood on the podium. Today, a bike that was built precisely for this purpose is ready to go again. Now that sounds like an advertising slogan. And let's let the Spaniards dream that the Summum will once again clear an entire podium. But if you ask us, the chances are better that it will be a Santa Cruz V10 podium this year. But until then: "¡Viva España!"
Dimitri Lehner
Editor
