Sabbath Mondays Child Mark II review

Sabbath Mondays Child Mark II review

Is the new Mondays Child fair of pace?

Our rating

4.5

2880.00

David Caudery / Immediate Media

Published: November 19, 2019 at 7:00 am

Our review
Stiff, fast and great fun plus loads of customisation choices

Pros:

Fast, efficient frame, quality wheels and fine groupset

Cons:

The stiff frame and 31.6mm post may be too much for some

Titanium has a reputation for comfort, compliance and ‘springiness’ but you can also transform titanium into a stiff and aggressive machine, which is what Sabbath has done in its newest Mondays Child.

It’s the usual very neatly welded 3Al/2.5V titanium, made with custom-drawn seamless metal, but this Mark II model has a PressFit 30 bottom bracket shell and a tapered head tube – with a 1.5in diameter lower bearing race.

These combine to offer a claimed increase in front-end stiffness of 23 per cent with 19 per cent more at the rear, while still losing weight over the earlier version. But has Sabbath managed to combine the "low, fast riding position without compromising on titanium’s legendary ride comfort"? We’ll see…

As with all of Sabbath’s bikes, the Mondays Child is available in numerous build options and I went for the Shimano Ultegra-equipped model. You can also get it with Mavic Ksyriums and Yksion Elites but I chose handmade wheels with Kinlin rims and Schwalbe Pro One tyres.

They come set up as tubeless, which is one of the themes running through this test. It does appear that road tubeless is finally gaining some traction. I’ve gone tubeless this year on my own bike and without a puncture to date.

The frame of a sabbath road bike showing internal cabling
A noticeably stiff frame makes Mondays Child aggressive and racy. David Caudery / Immediate Media

It seems a sensible companion to titanium because comfort is usually given as one of the prime movers for going ti, and it helps here with the rim’s width, ballooning the 25mm Pro Ones out to a healthy 28mm-plus.

Schwalbe claims that the Pro One is "the fastest road tyre in the world", but while it’s definitely fast that is only part of the equation. The tyres’ extra volume adds comfort – especially compared with the 23mm that the 2014 Mondays Child was running – but you can also run them at a lower pressure, giving a further uplift in plushness.

In Sabbath’s case, the tyres help to balance out what is a noticeably stiff frame – one that shows carbon isn’t the only way to go in 2019 or 2020 if you want something aggressive and racy.

In fact, my Sabbath came with a printout from Germany’s mechanical testing lab for bicycles, EFBE Prüftechnik, showing that the Monday Child Mark II’s out-of-the-saddle rigidity has increased from the 110 N/mm of its predecessor to 120 N/mm, which is very much at the upper end of things.

Bottom bracket and crank of Sabbath Mondays Child Mark II
Oversized bottom bracket offers riders great control. David Caudery / Immediate Media

The Sabbath is not quite as light as a similarly priced carbon equivalent, but the performance is on a par and I’d say there’s an added immediacy and directness.

Out-of-the-saddle climbs? Tackled with a no-nonsense, flex-and fuss-free forcefulness – the translating of those German tests into riding reality. Throw it into corners and it behaves impeccably, the tapered head tube and oversized bottom bracket shell offering you great control.

The Sabbath is also a very good descender. The frame’s stiffness, taut wheels and excellent high-grip tyres all work together with the Ultegra rim brakes.

The seemingly unstoppable takeover of disc brakes makes it easy to forget just how good the newest generation of Shimano’s caliper rim brakes are. They’re great, offering more than enough stopping power and bringing you to a safe, controlled halt.

Sabbath Mondays Child Mark II
Immediate and direct: the translation of German riding tests into reality. Russell Burton

An unusual feature these days is the 31.6mm seatpost. The USE-Sabbath titanium post creates a nicely coordinated look and a ride that’s firm and efficient, though it stays the right side of being overly stiff.

The Sabbath’s ride isn’t super-soft, but its comfort is acceptable and the dynamism and directness of its ride incredibly appealing.

If you’re looking for a fast, aggressive machine with enough comfort for big days out, the newest iteration of Sabbath’s Mondays Child is both fair of face and of pace. The frame’s lifetime guarantee means that it’s pretty fair of value too.

Sabbath Mondays Child Mark II geometry

  • Seat angle: 73 degrees
  • Head angle: 72 degrees
  • Chainstay: 41.2cm
  • Seat tube: 47.3cm
  • Top tube: 54.8cm
  • Fork offset: 4.7cm
  • Trail: 6.1cm
  • Bottom bracket height: 27cm
  • Wheelbase: 998mm

Product

Brand sabbath
Price 2880.00 GBP
Weight 7.9200, KILOGRAM (M) -

Features

Fork Dedacciai carbon
br_stem FSA OS168 90mm
br_chain KMC X11-93
br_frame 3Al/2.5V Titanium
Tyres Schwalbe Pro One 25mm tubeless
br_brakes Shimano Ultegra
br_cranks Shimano Ultegra 50/34
br_saddle San Marco Aspide Open
br_wheels Kinlin XR22T/RT hubs, Bitex RAF10/RAR hubs
br_headset FSA ITA
br_shifter Shimano Ultegra
br_cassette Shimano Ultegra 11-34
br_seatpost USE titanium 31.6mm
br_handlebar FSA Wing Compact 42cm
br_bottomBracket Shimano R60 in SRAM PressFit 30 to BSA
br_availableSizes XS, S, M, L, XL
br_rearDerailleur Shimano Ultegra