Bike was a Heckler XO1 Reserve with 36's up front, GX AXS shifter, XO1 AXS derailleur and a Fox transfer seat post. Rockshox air shock on the rear and flip chip too high BB setting.
Thoughts:
As usual I ran the fork compression damping at minimum as I'm not that heavy. Cold weather may make them feel horrible like other 36's I've ridden.
Rear shock did exactly what it should do, carpet like ride with a bit of pop.
Gears were flawless.
Transfer post was a pain as I'm a short arse at 5'6. I really could've done with 125 travel vice 150 as I had the post so slammed into the seat tube the cable decoupled from the post after being a total pain creeping down when I didn't want it to.
Brakes were excellent as were the heavily worn assegai tyres.
Shimano steps motor I've not ridden before (previously specialized/brose and Bosch systems). It's got a good bit of grunt, I'd say just a bit less than the brose but you get more out of the motor spinning it rather than churning away in a high gear riding the torque like I do on the brose. Motor cutoff is the same with a good decoupling, yes it rattled a bit occasionally but nothing that was off putting. Range in ECO on a fully charged battery was saying 100miles! I spanked it and myself for nearly 10 miles in BOOST (the highest setting) and used 1 bar or about 20%, this included 3 mental spins up the path to the top of the DH tracks, which is very steep and a grim slog on an amish bike. 9.73miles with 1771ft of climbing.
Ride; I was determined to not like the mullet setup but my mind has been changed, compared to Mrs M's Levo it turned better, turn and mid corner was less drifty and faster. I didn't notice any less speed or rolling from the rear being smaller compared to Mrs M's full 29er Levo. Mind changed.
The bike rode really well, yes the weight is there on turn in and the tyre has to work harder but I didn't lose the front once despite some bad washout on the DH tracks. Yes I ran wide a couple of times but that was due to the "DH mincer" at the helm rather than the bike. Drops and jumps it just soaked up with excellent composure on landing.
Minor criticism was that I had a couple of heavy pedal strikes even though the flip chip was in the high bb setting. Maybe something that could be maybe alleviated by running the shock at 25% rather than 30% sag.
Rather boringly I now want one.
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