I don't think I'm a plus bike guy. The Hightower was monumentally slow climbing on the first climb my daughter was buzzing my back tire then went around and just disappeared. She said it felt great to finally beat me to the top, so she liked it. I don't know how much of it was the tires slowing me down and how much may have been suspension kinematics. They have redesigned VPP to be more linear and not have the rising then falling rate that used to define it. I think that is what gave my Carbine it's snappy pedaling. Could also be light 26" wheels w 2.3" tires too though. Not to mention moment of inertia. OK, so across the trail it was OK, and it did make it easy to cross some roots and rock as we pedaled across to the first downhill. We finally reached the first downhill, a machine built flow trail. It felt OK here, hard to know for sure if I was faster or not, but the first thing I noticed is the 2.8 tires buzzing the crap out of my calfs when turning. I didn't like landing doubles on the big balloon tires. It wasn't bad, but it didn't wow me. I remember the Bronson wowing me on the downhills. Next climb was a handbuilt trail w loads of switchbacks, I was slow here too, but any tech parts (there were a few) were easy. On both climbs, I could have downshifted like 5 gears, but I'd still be out there climbing now. If I was the kind of rider who wanted to just casually pedal up and then smoke a bowl before descending, maybe this would be my kind of bike. From here, we climbed up into an older, very rooty singletrack. I'm about 50/50 on cleaning the first pitch. On this bike I'd be 100% I'm sure, but it's a grunt to power this thing. At this point I was thinking that would really make plus biking work for me is a Bosch motor and a lithium-ion battery. As this trail leveled out, I just rode away from my daughter like nothing. I usually do that anyway on my skinny tired 26" bike though. It was weird, in this section it almost felt like I was riding on snow instead of dirt. Just sort of disconnected. Hard to say if this bike was really good here, or if it was just much less of a handicap. Let's say it was good. From here there is an "interesting" but short downhill. The fat tires were good, but overall, I didn't love it here either. Line choice was not as important as on skinny tires, but it was a little harder to chose line anyway. The suspension actually felt a little harsh here. Pike front Monarch RCT3 rear. If it were mine, I'd start by pulling out whatever tokens or spacers were in the rear shock. My sag was correct but I should have been using more travel. Made me miss my BOS/Cane Creek suspension. One more bit of old trail, Aryn's Loop. I rode "the clit" a tech feature more easily than I ever have before, but the bike was a handful on the really tight turns. Final descent was a combo of handbill and manmade. I think the bike was very fast here although the fat tires were both a blessing and a curse. Again, they let you take different lines in traction limited places, but on really smooth blue groove type dirt they don't grip much at all. I think there is too little pressure per square inch of knob for them to grab the ground. The bike was fast and easy, but not blinding like the Bronson.
I've always felt skeptical about the wide tire/ wide rim thing. World Cup downhillers do just fine on 2.4" tires and 23mm rims. Some have gone wider now, but certainly not to the crazy extent that we see being pushed in consumer bikes. I think one of the things that the narrower rim does is it lets you feel where you are on the traction circle. You can feel the sidewall start to give when you are nearing the limit. I love hearing the rrrrrip sound of tires that are almost ready to peel off the rim.
I'm gonna try the Bronson again tomorrow and see if I like it more than last time. It was fun, but also a bit boring, I felt like I couldn't power it hard enough to keep it fun.
they dont really say. 
