Once dialed in I am impressed. I did have a shop reverse the brake handles as I always rode motocross style in the past. I dont think they tightened it down enough as the front blew out oil and I gotta fix that.
I got the Xl as im 6'5 and it felt perfect to me
The brakes, when working were very nice. Not top of the line or anything for my first try at hydraulics, they felt really good
Rear alcera derailleure seemed a little "clunky" but seems to lighten up a little with break in.
I was too heavy for the xcr front fork so i went from max preload to an air raidon that I dialed in with 15 cc of oil in the air chamber and sag set good. Felt much better than the xcr on trails.
This was my first 29er so the thing i noticed was a little more rolling resistance on paved roads than i thought I would have. But, when I got on trails, I found where this thing really shined.
When I first got it, I did change some parts out. I put a wtb pure saddle on it. I changed the grips out to some larger diameter oury lock grips. I did the raidon fork and I got a nice set of platform pedals to replace the generic ones it came with. I changed out the rear tire to a forte tsali.
I'm quite happy with my purchase as getting the deal on it made it very worth while. The thing about getting the lower level bike, it will come with the lower level parts. Sometimes when you spend a little more, there is less things you change out of the gate. I did tons of research and ignored the "Diamondbacks suck" sentiment, dialed it in and the thing feels great to me.
