Small bump compliance in 27.5+ mode far better than any bike I've ridden including the first generation Santa Cruz Bronson and current Intense Tracer T275.
Very poppy and fun on descents. Overall an excellent descender with nimble handling and deep-feeling suspension.
Rear suspension feels endless. It seems to be extremely progressive, in a good way.
Quiet and smooth ride.
Great build kit.
Clean, beautiful bike.
Weakness:
I'm 6'5" and 225 (235 kitted out) and had to inflate the shock to 290PSI to achieve 30% sag on flat ground. At that sag and with the 150mm Pike, the bike still felt a bit choppered out and the feeling was exacerbated on climbs, when sag dropped to closer to 40% even with the compression switch set to climb. I think that if I was 6'5", 185 lbs the bike would have been fine but at my weight, with that shock tune, I could not find a great balance for climbing.
I rode the bike for a 24 hour demo, so perhaps with more tuning work I could have dialed in in, but from my experience It's an awesome descender and flat ground bike but wasn't a great climber for me due to the short stays pulling the rear wheel right underneath me and shock tune not providing quite enough support. If you're a tall and fat guy like me who will have his weight right over the rear wheel on climbs make sure its climbing characteristics work for you before pulling the trigger on this bike--- Perhaps try riding it with enough shock pressure for 25% sag on flat ground and see if that improves things.
Similar Products Used:
Santa Cruz Bronson
Salsa Spearfish
Intense Tracer
Ibis Mojo HD
Ibis Mojo
