Welp, my conclusion. It’s a whole different riding experience. It’s what I expected the XR to be in the first place, having come from the OG Pint. It now has a solid, responsive, confident power that it lacked before, with the option to dial it back from there if desired.

Having seen the GT reviews now, riding a Badgered VnR’d XR seems exactly right for me. Big deck, good speed, long range, generous power, mellow pushback.