Put 35km and about 550m vertical onto the new wheels.
Need to find a good track that has a little bit of everything and do back to back tests to compare, but these are my initial thoughts.
Climbing - overall I think it's a touch slower.
They seem to have better traction, especially on super loose stuff but they seem draggier. They don't suffer from 'falling' off rocks was what I noticed first, you can roll over loose rock and it holds a line much better than a 2.3 tyre which can roll off to the side.
Flat/trail riding - here I didn't notice much difference. A bee's dick less rollover than the 29" wheels, but then the extra traction over logs, rocks, etc. makes up for it. I find they take a little more effort to turn in, but as soon as you lean it over its grip city.
Both my 29 and 27.5 plus wheelsets come in within 50 grams of each other too, this would partially explain the little difference I experienced riding over flat/straight line.
Decending - Phwoah... i felt like I was flying. The ability to carry more speed through corners is fantastic. Whether there is that much more grip available, I'm not sure... But it gave me so much more mid corner confidence.
I had my tyres pumped up on the firmer side for plus tyres (20psi rear, 18psi front) so as not to introduce too much squishiness and allow the 160mm of travel I have on tap to do its job. I think this was about on the money, I could potentially go a bit higher in the rear, front seemed spot on.
Overall it's a faster package for me. I knocked off about 15 PR's (a few full segments, and lots of mini segments)
I'll still hang onto my 29" wheels, and probably chuck my light specialized tyres on them for when I want to knock up the kilometres and trail ride... But for an all out assault these things are brutal.
