If you saw my first impressions review, you may recall that one factor in the crash that led to some frame damage (more on that below) was slippery rubber (the other factor was the rider). Unless you live in Arizona, or somewhere similarly dry and loose, I'd be swapping out the tires on day one. The SE5s just didn't cut it in the wet I'm afraid but the Kryptotals have been excellent in every situation thus far, and Cushcore takes them to the next level. I had more cornering confidence, better braking control in low grip situations and I was carrying more speed and even a little bravado. The fine folks at Obsession:Bikes swapped out the Bontrager SE5 tires for some Continental Kryptotal tires and added Cushcore at the same time.* The results were immediate and spectacular. I have made two significant swaps on the bike and one of them has made a huge difference to the DH performance. *Most North Shore trails aren't fast at all, so my suspension is rarely set up for speed, and particularly high velocity trails with frequent and repeated high intensity impacts. Yesterday I managed to stay with a hard-riding buddy on a Specialized Enduro for the whole trail - and the Exe felt great. We rode some very rowdy trails and I was totally happy on the Fuel EXe, including on one of the fastest trails we ride regularly.* It's peppered with bumps and repeated hits and it's a trail I often struggle with on any bike, unless my suspension, and my fork in particular, has the damping set up perfectly. In fact it is 150/140 but I double-checked that to be sure when I got home - because at times that doesn't seem possible. Somebody commented on me being on a bike with 160/150 mms of travel, which is what I'd thought much earlier, before I had any info about the bike. I did a ride the other day with a bunch of buddies and the majority were on bikes with 170 mm of travel front and rear or more.
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