I went out for a days training/riding with Craig Bounds over the easter and during the day we swapped xchallenges ... i couldnt believe the difference in the feel of the bikes, his felt lighter, taughter, quicker and smaller than mine. I was instantly quicker and was taking lines and routes that i didnt have confidence taking with my bike 5 mins earlier. Craigs bike has standard forks with progressive springs same as mine but he's spent a lot of time in the past setting them up and will let me know what spacers etc he put in them to get them to where they are now, but we changed my compression and rebound settings that helped a lot. He's running a reworked/revalved ohlins rear shock against my air shock, not a lot we could do about that on the day but again as part of the package it felt much more planted and hugged the track better so having put off doing that changed i think one will be going on mine as soon as possible. My bar risers whilst nice and comfortable for my back when standing were stopping me getting my weight far enough forward and over the front wheel so off they came as well which again helped the front end. Craig also has a venhill throttle which was nice and smoothed and needs less wrist movement to open fully for a faster power delivery, i often have to shuffle my grip on the throttle to do that on mine so i can see one of those going on my bike soon 
Other than that he has a modded akro exhaust, has a nice bark without being offensive but i cant afford one of those. The engine is standard, as is the rad and he wasnt worried about the fan being on a lot, he does have the tt rad guard but very little else added.
it was good to get a comparison for someone like me that doesnt know enough, my bike seemed fine to me before i started but having ridden Craigs it showed me how much better it can be ...
Other than that he has a modded akro exhaust, has a nice bark without being offensive but i cant afford one of those. The engine is standard, as is the rad and he wasnt worried about the fan being on a lot, he does have the tt rad guard but very little else added.it was good to get a comparison for someone like me that doesnt know enough, my bike seemed fine to me before i started but having ridden Craigs it showed me how much better it can be ...
