Bike Magazine‘s Mike Ferrentino recently spent a good amount of time aboard the new Hei Hei CR DL on and around his local California trails. Here’s what he had to say about the just-released bike.

“The bike has fantastic pedaling behavior in fully open mode, whether seated or standing. Combine the pedaling characteristics with those real light Maxxis Rekon tires, and the bike levitates uphill like a homesick angel. It’s fast.

This, naturally, brings us full circle to the conundrum of the modern XC bike. Ideally, I want my XC bike to be as light as humanly possible. In this regard, the new Hei hei is still a couple pounds heavier than I want, and overall there isn’t a lot of room to drop weight without losing what few creature comforts remain. I have grown spoiled by dropper posts and 180-millimeter front rotors. BUT, if I was truly hardcore about my XC bikes, I wouldn’t want a dropper post or good brakes or tires that have knobs and stiff sidewalls. So, in many ways the Hei Hei delivers what I DO want in an XC bike – awesome pedaling characteristics and fun, playful handling that is right at home when it comes time to pin on a number and spit up a lung, with the adaptability to slap on some meatier tires and be a fun, capable (within reason) trail bike the rest of the time. Works for me.”

Mike has a lot to say about the Hei Hei CR DL so be sure to cruise on over to Bike Mag to get the full review.