A four month review of the bright red bomber
Looks great especially in red. Beefy frame construction with added reach. No fuss components including a quality dropper post and excellent, almost plus sized tyres. Pedals well for such a capable DH oriented bike. Set and forget suspension which is plush off the top but offers great bottom out resistance on the bigger hits. Value for money.
The tyres - they are tough and provide reasonable grip but are heavy and the tread pattern is over kill out back. Harder to find the pressure sweet spot than with 2-3- 2.5 tyres. The short HT and stack height makes the bars low like an XC bike even in XL, which works for climbing but isn't great when things get steep and technical. An upgrade to another brand of bar or angled stem is the only solution. Specialized bars only come in a max 25mm rise. Guide R brakes lack the power and reliability of old SLX brakes with same size rotors. Bleeding requires bleeding edge hose from SRAM, at extra expense. Yari fork does not match the back end in terms of plushness but is a solid performer. Wheel and tyre combo is heavy.
The "bad" list appears to outweigh the good, but that's not the case. This is a very confidence inspiring and good looking bike. Although very heavy at 15.9 kg with DX pedals, a different stem and grips, the bike pedals up hill well very well, even with the shock in the open position. Downhill, the only thing that lets it down is the brakes and at times the low bar height. The bike jumps and corners very well and carries speed through the rough. This is a beefy forgiving bike and ideal a mini-dh or park bike although as I said, it can be pedaled uphill with success and has immense grip.. My longest ride as around the 45km mark. It likes speed and still surprises me at how fast it can be thrown into the roughest sections. The Rockshox suspension is easy to set up and doesn't seem to suffer from the problems identified with the Ohlins on higher end models.
