LOL, I rode the same one
enjoythesilenc did. I was really looking forward to it that day. The things that stood out to me:
* No where near the power of a Nucular 24F modified SurRon. Literally, no comparison.
* It is loud. A chain drive primary conversion on the SurRon might be the same though?
* Low clearance. I bottomed out on several logs that my 21"/19" SurRon does not. This happened enough times I really started to take more care to not beat up Sam's bike. Or maybe the Manitou damping is a lot softer than my Fox? It didn't seem bouncy though.
* Great brakes
* Awesome color! Appeared to be really well built.
* Shorter seat height than a 21"/19" wheel'ed SurRon? Drill One Enduro spec is 920mm. Not sure where they are measuring it. My SR is about that at the tail, and lower in the front. (I don't have a seat riser as it would then be too tall for my wife.) Maybe they are the same and just the rest of the ergo's being off it felt short? Maybe Sam had the sag set way down? Anyway, as soon as I threw a leg over it I literally thought 'damn, this is short.' But maybe I had just jumped off my KTM E.
* Throttle response. This is the showstopper. Its jumpy and slow/laggy from a stop or coming from low throttle. Like the control software can't handle low rpm (slow control loops?) Or it has a heavy (slow) filter or ramp on the throttle input. But sitting there at a stop and applying throttle you can see the control is a bit confused. It actually appears to, at times, drive in reverse a couple of degrees. Like the control didn't correctly detect where the magnets were. I was the one commenting to enjoythesilenc that it seems they were running it sensorless (no idea if its actually got an encoder or hall sensor though.) The slow off-throttle response made it very difficult to time unloading the front end even while moving. It just doesn't have an immediate throttle response as you crack it open. Its very off putting.
I forgot to take a pic of it. I'm just now noticing that the rear shock forward bolt locations doesn't have the 'circle' of options all the web photos show.
I'd love to ride it at a faster track. Sam says the front end has more rake than a SR and its a lot more stable at speed. The rear linkage seems to not be very progressive at all so I'm also curious to see how it handles bigger hits.