Rupert's Initial Impressions on the Taniwha Mulét

Rupert Chapman, who is our latest ambassador, has been on his Taniwha Mulét for a short while now. We asked him to put together a few words about his initial impressions, so here they are:

“Where do I start? I guess I start where I started, pulling the bike out of the box!

The looks of the Mulét are clean and simple, no useless derailleurs hanging off the back interfering with the clean lines of the bike. It looks aggressive with the larger wheel at the front and the angles look just right! Matte black paint always looks good - stealth bomber.

I felt at home pretty quickly on the bike so after about 10 minutes of fiddling with the bar roll and suspension settings I started riding up the hill.

First test out of the gate, gear range - bigger than any bike I’ve ever ridden, from “ridiculously easy on the flat” first gear all the way up to “never spin out on a sprint” ninth gear and you can change through all of them without pedaling!!!

It took about 200m of pedaling up the hill before I got the hang of the grip-shift and not shifting under load, when shifting when sprinting I sort of do a little hop thing to unload the chain and the bike shifts perfectly without any loss at all. After the first minute or so the shifting and gearbox felt natural and I continued up the hill, the bike climbs well and I was never short of gear choice.

When I got to the top I unlocked the shock, had a drink and it was time to go down. The first thing I noticed is how quiet the bike is over rough ground, there’s no real chain slap and the back wheel stays planted to the ground. There’s so much grip in the rear, I’m guessing from having less unsprung weight in the rear meaning the wheel tracks so well! Because of this I found I could run the rear shock harder than I thought so the bike pumped, popped and pedaled even better.

I did some runs at the [Christchurch] Adventure Park, tinkering with the suspension a bit but in all honesty the bike felt right straight away, I was so excited and having so much fun that I just kept riding.

After riding some different tracks to get a feel for how the bike handles different terrain I couldn’t really fault it, the 27.5 wheel in the rear makes the bike so easy to whip round turns and in tighter tracks and then the 29er wheel in the front is confidence inspiring at high speeds, the best of both worlds!

I’m pretty slack at maintenance so I’m happy to report after a few weeks of riding and only lubing the chain a couple of times the bike is still running just as well as the day I got it, perfect for someone going away or on a mission somewhere that parts breaking might ruin your trip.

I’m stoked on the Mulét as a whole and I’d highly recommend them, especially for a guy like me that just likes going out and riding fast without any hassle!”

Stay tuned for more from Rupert and if you’re in the Canterbury region (NZ) look out for him and his stealth bomber Taniwha Mulét riding a dangerous speeds. To keep up to date with everything Rupert is up to check him out on Insta.