I have a Blur and a Trek hardtail and am a recovering HT die-hard. They both have the same brakes and tires, and medium gravel is the smoothest surface I generally ride. I was surprised to find that I am faster on the Blur in almost all scenarios. It tracks the ground better, up and down, and is more comfortable on level stuff, which has me putting down power better over distances. Additionally, the lockout is there for anytime better power transfer is needed. I would however suggest swapping out the twist-loc for… anything else.
I just bought this for my Spark. The twin-loc makes fitting a dropper lever on that side a massive pain. I can’t wait for it to arrive but r2-bike shipping to the uk isn’t the fastest.
Very keen to hear your thoughts on it. I’ve added it to my cart multiple times over the last few months but haven’t pulled the trigger. It’d be great to see how it actually fits and what the thoughts are.
It would be great if you could share a photo once you have it and share your impressions. I have also a Spark. I‘m curious how you will arrange it and with which finger you actuate it.
I have a crank brothers highline remote/lever that has a milion ways to mount. I have it above my twin loc. So easy peasy.
What size?
Hump
Yes we’ve messed with them at the shop. For tri folks sram has a 3d printed holder for the blips for free if you search the interwebs for it. Works for for Tri folks, but I was trying to figure out how I could get them on my XC bike. I want to set them up like index finger triggers kind of like how Kate Courtney has those blips under her grips. I would love for my left index finger to blip shift towards the 51t and my right index finger to blip shift towards the 10t. The problem is the base of the wireless blips is large and will not mount to a handle bar smoothly. I even tried cutting out an ESI grip but it was janky.
Here’s a pic of it inside an ESI grip. Also here’s a really ghetto drawing of something that I’d like to have someone that can design stuff in 3d printing software to print up. Basically it would be a cradle for the wireless blip that would slip on to your bar and hold the blip out just over the grip.
Also there’s the whole fact that these things are kind of disposable that’s a turn off… Ridiculous they didn’t make them with like a 2302 battery or something.
BTW according to SRAM there should be a firmware update for AXS that allows these blips to work with axs droppers… They said sometime in July.
Have a 2022 highball. Use it as my winter beater. Likely won’t ever see a race course. These days, not sure why anyone would consider HT over FS.
Hero Dolomites (86km, 4500m)
I looked this up because it sounds epic, but I can’t quite tell from the 3D video. Is it fireroad type riding? Or technical single track?
Certainly an impressive amount of climbing in an epic part of the world.
There are videos of it on YouTube. Mainly climbs are on fire roads with some very steep and broken sections. Descents are single track and fire roads. Technical sections are s1-s2.
There are other similar profiles. Ischgl Ironbike, Eiger, Grand raid etc.
All those have massive climbs and trails with s1, s2 with some s3 sections. Fire road descents are the biggest hazard, since you need to eurobomb them to do it right.
A hardtail is faster but better? Dunno.
Because I couldn’t afford a FS bike… 
Still, enjoying my first XC season, even if my teeth are rattling out of my skull.
Don’t let anyone make you feel bad about working within your budget. For most us, the rider and training is going to make more of a difference than the bike IMO. Keep on enjoying it, and count the number of FS folks you pass.
This is the only correct answer here.
On a positive note, riding the HT and racing the HT you are going to become much better at line choice and being smooth vs. if you started on a FS. Even small skills like bump jumps over roots and stuff on the HT can set you up great for the time when the FS can fit into your budget.
One cheap’ish upgrade you can look at since you are stuck on the HT for a bit is to possibly getting at least a rear tire insert. The wider the tire you can fit and the lower the psi you can get to without destroying a rim will make your HT much less teeth rattling. The difference in ride quality from lets say like a 29x2.25 tire on a 21-25mm wide rim @ 18psi vs. 29x2.4WT on a 27-30mm wide rim @ 14psi is night and day. With inserts, even better. Inserts are cheap’ish and you can start out with just a rear.
Like these…https://www.vittoria.com/us/en/bike-accessories/tire-inserts/air-liner-mtb. I plan to get some for my fat bike too!
Brian Matter, (ex)pro and coach, agrees. At a recent camp he discussed how much equipment impacts riding including the benefits of not worn-out tires and inserts.
I have a really hard time adding a ton of rolling weight to my bike. I landed on these with some success. They’re truly just rim protection though and don’t tune a tire like a full on insert.
Just installed the Vittoria for my Scalpel. Only mistake I made was not lining up one of the holes in the liner with the valve stem, so checking sealant is going to be fun.
Install was mostly simple, but getting the last bit of bead on was a test of time. I sure as heck am not getting a tube in there anytime soon. 
The Tubolight SL insert is only ~50g and is a really nice insert for shape and volume. Providing the tyre bead security and similar feel to the added ramp up/tyre pressure tuning as a CushCore.
touche’!
Has your remote arrived? I pulled the trigger (no pun intended) on one for my bike. Unfortunately the Barcentric Dropper Remote wasn’t really a great fit for my set up. Certainly didn’t look or feel as nice as the pictures on the Wofltooth page made it look.
My shipping will be a few weeks though.