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.
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.”