Saturday Test Ride

Had the kids yesterday morning and couldnt do the normal Saturday morning ride so instead took my son to Gamestop for a DS game and hit Harrels to get a new tire. I havent had the Excavators but a couple months and love them for the downhill sections but definately can feel them on the rooty climbs and wanted to try something a little less knobby. Could only swing getting one tire this week and thought I'd see if getting just the rear would make any difference. After going back and forth and asking Toby and Dan all kinds of questions I ended up getting the Bontrager Jones XR . This 2.2 is narrower than the kendas 2.1 but thought Joe had mentioned once it worked pretty good for a rear tire. I was also wanting to see what the Maxxis Crossmark looked like too but they didnt have any of them.
After Tonya came home I was able to swap the tire and head out for an afternoon ride around 2:30. It was a welcome sight to see our trails are finally showing some sings of moisture but they must of also gotten some winds out there as there was one tree down on Lost Creek and 2 on spider woman.
Started out with the intent of trying to ride aggressive to see how the tire would do but barely a mile in my ribs were hurting with every root impact or when my heart would get racing. Think I may get this checked if it doesnt get any better next week but that darn right rib from the catawba wreck is still bad and now my left upper side around my heart has been bothering me and cant tell if its just a sprained muscle or I'm just being overly nervous but in either case it has been making for unpleasant riding when you start getting jared around over the roots and such. Ended up just taking an easy ride to try and get some miles in. I do think I noticed a difference in the tire too, it did seem to roll easier but my confidence in leaning into it will have to wait till I get more of a feel for it, I had finally gotten used to the excavators and didnt attempt to push any high speed turns as I would with it yet. The Jones did seem to make climbing easier and had no problems with straight line grip whatsoever. Next I want swap the front for something that matches up to the same type/condition tire but not sure if I should go with the Bontrager version of the front for this rear or try somehting different. Anybody have any suggestions on something that would go good with this and still be fairly grippy for the turns but also a little less rolling resistance than a full knobby.
Im trying to decide between the Conti Mountain King, Speed King, or the Jones XR matching front.

Stats:
Distance: 24.2
Time: 2:24
Avg: 10.0 (slooow ride)
Avg HR: 153