Well. I can only summarise that as a pleasant surprise!
I was honestly terrified that I would hate riding a HT in anger. But the HT and 27.5+ wheel combination was fantastic!
There wasn't really any moments where I didn't feel confident in attacking the trail, rather than tip-toeing through it. Pedalling was AMAZING and the only times I was really feeling I had a HT was rocky or rooty sections.
Turns out.... MANY MANY roots at Lysterfile. You were indeed correct
@slowmick. Only Did 13km gave out. I did feel myself working more through sections I would have previously bombed through and instead was looking for a good line. But still had a blast.
The goooooood
stuff.
The brakes. I have to thank
@moorey for pointing me at these. Great bite and I had a LOT of confidence in them. I would go as far as saying I prefered these over the guides I had on my Enduro. And I loved my Guides.
The tyres. Being a fairly tame looking tyre I was expecting to be washing out and struggling for tracking everywhere. Super dusty today so I was really expecting to go for a short flight and a hard landing today. But the WTB Ranger gripped great! And being a 27.5x2.8 it smoothed out the trail and some of the harder hits quite nicely. I loved it. The only issue, the rear strap on my bike rack doesn't make it around the tyre so I have to deflate it a bit. So the first thing I had to do at the trail was pump...
The fork. After doing some reading about this fork, and it explicitly saying it should be used for nothing else by leisure XC. I was expecting my 100kg self (including gear) would cause it to fail. But... It did the job. I did use all its travel, but I used most the travel on Enduro too so I really cannot complain. If performed admirably.
The frame. The geo is great. Very close to what the Enduro was in terms of head angle and a touch longer. Felt lovely and I still cannot get over how much better pedaling is on a HT.
@Chriso_29er , I did get some PBs. Pretty much anything that involved a climb I got a PB or very good result.
Things to look at.
The pedals. The stock ones are plastic and they have integrated reflectors. So I didn't have high hopes for them to begin with but my foot did feel a bit loose here and there. Though I don't think I would go for something as aggressive as the Saints I had in the past, as I liked the fact I could move my foot a bit easier on the pins than the saints.
The front chainring. So the front ring is a 30t and the granny on the back is 42t. On my Enduro I had 32t and 42t which did the job well. Given how much better this is to pedal I think I will go 34t on the front. Here and there I did feel I was running out of gears on some of the faster bits.
The grips. The stock Norco grips are very, very narrow and rather hard. I prefer something with a bit more girth to wrap my <strike>mouth</strike> hand around. They also only lock on the inside which I didn't think would be an issue, but I did feel a little wiggle in them later in the day and one I felt that, I couldn't unfeel it.
The seat. Yeah so with this one from work go I thought I would need to upgrade. Then I did some riding around to playgrounds and stuff and it felt ok so I was like "maybe I just need my tooshy to harden up a bit?" but today I got that pins and needles feeling in my Lil'Jester after a section of sitting down. This will be top of the list to Santa.
But again. Fantastic day out and super happy with how this bike felt. Grimming ear to ear.