MONGOOSE JUNEAU vs MALUS Fat Bike Comparison and Review

WEIGHT

FRAME

BOTTOM BRACKET WIDTH

HANDLE BARS

SEATPOST

Juneau has lightweight aluminum seatpost. 31.6mm diameter x 300mm length. However it still uses the super cheap walmart bike style seat clamp.
Malus has heavy steel seatpost. Uses the cheap walmart bike style seat clamp.

WHEELS

Juneau wheels have aluminum 80mm wide drilled rims, and aluminum 1 piece hub. The rear hub has a cassette-style sprockets.
Malus wheels have aluminum 100mm wide rims (some models are drilled, some are not). The rear hub is made of multiple pieces of stamped steel and uses a thread on freewheel for the sprockets. This limits the quality and range of the available sprockets.

SPEEDS

Juneau has 16 speed combinations (2 chainrings in the front and 8 sprockets in the back). This gives it plenty for range for climbing slow or going fast. It works very well as a mountain bike and on the street.
Malus has 7 speeds (7 sprockets in the rear). I found that even the lowest speed is not suitable for climbing. It's geared a bit high for a big heavy bike. More well suited for flat land riding, like on the beach.

SHIFTERS

Juneau has Microshift trigger shifters for front and rear. There are 2 levers that must be pushed with the thumb to go up and down in the gear range.
Malus has one grip shift style twist shifter on the right side for the 7 rear gears.

BRAKES

Both have disc brakes. Both benefit from replacing the pads with Shimano brand pads for much improved stopping power.
Juneau has 180mm disc brakes in the front and 160mm disc brakes in the rear. Out of the box, the Juneau has more stopping power than the Malus.
Malus has 160mm disc brakes in the front and rear. Out of the box the stopping power is not as good as it could be. The included pads appear to be of marginal quality, and the surface area where they contact the rotor is smaller than a comparable Shimano pad. Upgrading to the Shimano pad and properly breaking it in made a huge difference in stopping power

TIRE