It took about ten minutes for the verdict to come in… This is the winning ticket.
I have zero hesitation in saying that this bike is faster over my local gravel/dirt roads than any of the other bikes I’ve owned.
The traction out of the saddle pushing up little pitches at 600 watts is insane. The ability to stay seated and pedal through ruts and over washboard is very easily worth the couple pounds of extra weight. Leaning into loose corners at 20mph feels super stable, and planted. Typically on the standard forest roads on a gravel bike I find myself hopping from the outside line to the apex, and then back to the outside line, and hoping that the middle line isn’t too loose. With the added traction of wider tires and the suspension working, its really reassuring, and lets you push deeper into that corner with more speed. Brain forks get a ton of flak from what I’ve read out there, and this is my first experience on one, so I don’t have a depth of experiences with them, but I do really appreciate that I can just set the “Brain Fade” to one position, and let it do its thing. Same goes for the rear end; as there is obviously no “lockout” but it doesn’t feel needed, even when I was hammering up the paved climb to start my ride. And as a result, there isn’t a need to reach down and change anything after certain sectors of road/gravel/trail. I could see the downsides on a true XC bike, but for this use case, it seems truly ideal. Obviously this is a pretty niche build, and haters will hate, but if you’ve gotten this far in this thread, you’re likely a little more adventurous than most…