Honzo ESD vs Process 153 in the snow

After having ridden the Kona Honzo ESD for a month I started to get curious as to how it compares speed wise to the Process 153. Sure a hardtail feels faster, but is it actually, or is this down to being more out of control?

Having trails right on the doorstep means a fairly decent testing ground, as I know the tracks well. With some surprise snow in the morning, this would be a fun little test.

All the timing was done using a Freelap watch and poles.

Two tracks were used, both steep and tight. I did two runs on each track using each bike.

Honzo ESD Best TimesTrack 1 - 45.04 Track 2 - 58.25

Process 153 Best TimesTrack 1 - 43.74 Track 2 - 57.36 

Although my predictions were that the Process would be 3 seconds quicker, I was surprised to see how close the times were!

It would be nice to do this in some ideal conditions and see if that gap is opened up!