It was finally time to put new tires on to the Epic EVO and I went out for a little shakedown ride. I did so much research on what to replace them with and was unable to find exactly what I wanted. Even what I ended up with, I wasn't sure about when I bought them. Maybe a year after I got my bike, Specialized updated all their tires. I never really liked the Ground Control the bike came with for the front. It didn't do well on loose over hard, marbley type gravel. It was never an issue as I rode accordingly but I always wanted a tire I could trust to go harder. The Fast Trak on the back was great. No notes. It rolls fast and had plenty of traction. In fact it made my Epic EVO roll faster than my gravel bike. I wanted to swap out the Ground Control with the Purgatory which everyone raves about and I have on the rear of the Stumpy. The problem was it doesn't come in a tan wall where as the tires above and below it in Specialized's line up does. So frustrating and dumb. I could've gone Purgatory/Fast Trak in black but my bike is black. I like how the tan walls off set all that black. Ben at Cycle Sport suggested it. His other suggestion was to go Ground Control/Ground Control, which is what I did but I was worried that the bike wouldn't roll as well as it did before. The other thing Specialized did was change the casings it offered. I really wanted these tires in the lighter Control casing but they're only available in the next level up (and heavier) Grid casing. After installing the tires, I do notice the bike is a little heavier and the bike does roll a little slower, which I'm sad about. It could also just be that my legs are tired from yesterday's ride. I'll ride with them for a bit to see how I feel otherwise I might switch the back back to a Fast Trak. The other thing I noticed, these tires are stiffer and less compliant than before but at the same time, they're bouncier. It's weird. They also do grip really well. I did some testing on loose over hard and they seemed to grip better. I wasn't planning on testing it but I did and when I rode over to the test corner I noticed a trail head, Marchetti Trail, that I'd NEVER in all my years noticed before so I went and investigated it. I went all the way to the top and had no idea it's an offshoot (at the top) of Bottom Clencher/Boost that I always take. Somehow I'd missed seeing the split off at the top too! Much like Bottom Clencher/Boost, it's very narrow and off camber in places. No margin for error but it was fun! I took double the number of photos on this 1 hour ride as I did on yesterday's 6.5 hour ride. That's because MTB is better than road. :)