So I have a few rides on the Django and so far I am very happy with it. I felt very comfortable on the bike right from the start. Didn't have to fight with it at all to get it to do what I wanted. Corners awesome, took a couple of turns to realize that it takes a lot less effort to turn in that the fat bikes, pinged a few inside trees in the beginning. But changing lines mid corner is much easier, plus being able to stuff it in a corner and squaring it off instead of just having to rail around the outside is a lot of fun. The bike goes where I look, which is very important. It took a little bit to be confident in the tires compared to the huge traction of the fat bikes, but the High Roller II front and Ardent rear do well, I like that the ardent will start to slide first, no issues with pushing the front. They also don't want to flex and climb up bermed corners like the fatty does. The cornering is very confidence inspiring, not something I had with my older 29s or the 429 I tried which had the same tires.
Suspension wise, I am running 30-35% in the back, 25% in the front. I have to use a lot of pressure in the Monach Debonair shock, ~260psi. I haven't added any volume spacers because it works, but may add a negative air spacer at some point. Over the roots and rocks, the suspension is plush in the beginning,The back ramps up fast which give nice support in corners and has the bottomless feel on the smaller drops that I do. The Pike also feels great. Plush but also great mid travel support. Doesn't feeling like it is using too much travel coming into downhill corners with bumps. I like it better than some of the Fox 34s I have riddens. I'm sure they could be tuned to work for my weight, but it is nice to have it the way I like, straight out of the box.
The trails I ride are similar to Hartshorne, little steeper, tighter and more roots. No crazy downhills, so with the 130mm,120mm travel, the bike does great, if I want to ride over the roots, its plush, but if I want to pop off them, the mid travel support along with the short chainstays makes it fun and easy. I find that I'm now looking for stuff to play on instead of going around or over them.
It climbs well. It doesn't have that hardtail snappiness feel. But even in the slacker geo setting, the front wheel tracks straight when the climbs get steep and slow. Not a rocketship going up, but a nice neutral feel. It sprints ok, again not the hardtail feel. no sudden surge forward. Not an issue for me since it wasn't what I was looking for out of bike.
I like the 27.5 wheels, I haven't found any negative on my trails, but also no huge benefit. I'm not wheel size makes that big of a difference here.
The only bad is the bike creaks, I pulled it apart last night to grease some of the pivots and hopefully that will end that. The other Devinci that I demo'ed creaked too, hopefully not a constant problem. The buzz out of the raceface rear hub is annoying, since I'm used to silent hubs, it will eventually get replaced when it breaks.
In the end, very happy with the bike
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