Mongoose Legion Kids Freestyle BMX Bike, 16-20-inch

Buyer beware. If the bike is not suitable YOU have to pay the return postage which for me is 75.00

With all of the four and five star ratings, I must be the problem, right? The bike came partially dissembled for shipping purposes. I expected that. What I did not expect was:

1. Missing parts. One of the nuts and both of the washers were missing from the front wheel. Ok. A shipping problem. But what kind of washers do I need to go find? Should be simple. Just read the instructions.

2. Horrible Instructions: For example, to attach the front wheel, I need to follow the appropriate set of instructions depending if my bike’s wheel is, “nutted with step retaining washer, nutted with clip retaining washer or quick release”. But I don’t know which one my bike is; the nut and both washers are missing. Every section is just like this; follow the set of instructions that pertain to your bike. But where does it say if the bike I purchased has a quill stem, a threadless stem, a front load stem or a top load stem? I have no idea. Mongoose has been around for a while. So there are plenty of videos on YouTube. But there are so many configurations for Mongoose bikes, good luck finding the right one.

I watched a bunch of videos, went to Wal-Mart (twice) and got $30 worth of nuts, washers, hex drivers and, no I didn’t go out and buy the lithium gel they recommended! Then I paid a bike shop $45 to put the thing together because I still couldn’t figure it out. The bike shop wouldn’t do the brakes because of liability purposes. But they showed me that I needed to loosen a nut and put the brake cable out some. Should be easy, except…

3. CHEAP parts!: I stripped a nut and two screws trying to tighten the brakes just enough to barely work.

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m soooo frustrated.

Should I be worried? Every single step in the instruction book says that if I don’t do this step correctly, someone could get seriously injured or killed. Here ya’ go son. Have fun! Merry Christmas.

I could call Mongoose Customer Support. They are open Monday through Friday 8 to 5; because that’s when dads assemble bikes right?

Sorry for all of the venting. I’ve had the bike for a week and I have to say, I have NEVER had this much trouble assembling something that came in a box. I’ve got $250 invested into a $170 bike and I don’t feel safe letting my son ride it.

I am not a happy customer.

Excelente bicicleta, realmente tiene la geometría de una verdadera BMX, los componentes le funcionan correctamente, mi hijo mide 106 CM (5 años) y le va perfecta, de hecho un poco grande, lo que garantiza que la podrá utilizar un par de años más; la única desventaja es que a pesar de que los rines son de aluminio, es algo pesada (el cuadro, la tijera y el manubrio son hi ten steel, material resistente pero pesado). En general una buena opción para los pequeños que quieren iniciarse en el bmx

The bike from the pictures looked pretty cool. I didn’t realize how beautiful this bike would be until it came in the mail. I purchased the Legion Mag in orange for my 8 year old. It was great to see his reaction on Christmas when receiving this bike. He was so excited. I read some other reviews from reviewers who had complaints on the difficulty of assembling the bike and in my opinion the people having trouble assembling the bike must be blatantly ignorant or illiterate. The instructions for assembly are written so a teenager could assemble this bike, with clearly labeled diagrams and more in depth explanations than what is necessary for assembly. The instructions on assembly are excellent and I had almost no trouble assembling the bike without them until it came to adjusting the brakes. I assembled the entire bike without instructions except for the brakes because it is just self explanatory. I was also able to assemble the brakes without any trouble or needing the instructions although I did refer to them for proper adjustment and alignment protocols. The only issue I had when assembling the bike is when I got to the point of attaching the handlebars to the handlebar binder assembly attached to the stem. The four socket cap screws that tighten down on the handlebar binder bracket would not thread easily. I felt as though I would break the screws or destroy the threads if I attempted to tighten them down far enough to grip the handlebars. There was too much paint in the threaded holes and also the tolerances on the machining of the threads was not great. I have included some pictures showing just how much paint was removed from tapping and also chips from burs in the threaded holes from poor tolerance drilling and tapping at the factory. In order to fix this problem I grabbed a tap handle and a M8x1.25 normal thread tap and tapped the holes. I would give this bike a 4.9 out of 5 if I could just because I needed to tap these holes and a tap was not listed as a required tool. I don’t think many people will have problems assembling the bike even if they have this issue and need to tap the four holes as these are the only holes that need anything to be screwed into. Honestly if you don’t at the very least know how to use a tap and die set you probably shouldn’t be assembling a bike as it’s not safe to do so if you’re not familiar with basic tools. You could wind up hurting your child from pure negligence if you don’t know how to use basic hand tools to assemble this bike properly. My suggestion is that you take it to a local bike shop and pay $30-$40 to have them assemble the bike and adjust the brakes if you don’t know what you are doing. I assume some people who buy this bike will do just that with the majority of people knowing how basic hand tools work and them being able to assemble it themselves. Overall the bike is amazing, my son loves it, it was extremely easy to assemble, and I recommend you tap the holes on the handlebar binder even if it doesn’t need it as it will allow you to make a more secure connection. Please don’t listen to people complaining about difficult assembly as it was extremely easy even the detangler brakes something of which I’ve never seen or dealt with on a bike before. The instructions are very clear on how to hook the brakes up and how to adjust them properly and I was actually surprised how easy it was to assemble the brakes because I was expecting something very difficult based on the reviews but it turns out these brakes are easier to assemble than normal brakes.

My 8yr old son got the Legion model for Christmas. The assembly wasn’t too difficult, but the instructions aren’t specific to each model so the exact details are a little vague. The second thing I noticed was that the reflectors are too small to clamp on to this model, so I ordered a generic reflector set to fix. The chainguard was preinstalled but somehow broke on the second day, I removed the guard and the bike works well without it.

I was happy that it came installed with a kickstand as that wasn’t shown in the image. I also didn’t have any trouble adjusting the breaks as others mentioned as a con.

Overall I like the bike and think it’s a fair value despite my few minor issues.

The material on the bike is sturdy, I am satisfied with it and so is my child, he received a compliment and he was proud.