Hard or soft?
Our new online poll is great – it sits there and can answer lots of things for us about our readers – Do they like Marmite? Vimto or Irn Bru? Eastenders or Corrie?
Our previous question was about bike travel and it was interesting to see that 44% of our readers have a hardtail as their main mountain bike. Over here in magazine land, it’s easy to believe that all mountain bikes these days are full sussers – as a result of the bikes we get passing through our doors. This is partly due to manufacturers wanting us to see their new suspension systems, which have far more to talk about than simpler hardtails – and also because the rugged nature of Calderdale makes having a full suspension bike a viable machine. If the magazine were based in Brighton, we’d probably all ride super-light hardtails as the terrain there tends to punish bikes with extra weight and complexity.
Whether readers would like more hardtail reviews in the magazine, though, I’m not sure. In the same way that you don’t really watch Top Gear to see Clarkson driving around in the new Fiesta – you’re there for the Ferrari shoot – I wonder if pages of rather similar hardtails would make such interesting review copy, despite them being what most rider end up buying…
We’ll see what turns up, eh? At least we have a hardtail review coming up next issue… That should keep some people happy.
Posted on: February 26, 2009 by chipps
How about singlespeeds?
I’ll get me coat…..
I view my hardtail as a classic car that I just take out when I feel the need to be nostalgic.
I use mine when the ride is short and flatish and the back is feeling OK. Otherwise full sus.
’m not sure. In the same way that you don’t really watch Top Gear to see Clarkson driving around in the new Fiesta
It’s a sorry day when Singletrack compares itself to Top Gear! I’ve always felt that role belonged to some of the other mountain biking mags.
I’d like to stick my vote in for more hardtails. The majority of bikes at races are HT’s and they definitly have their place for trail riding as well. There’s some great bikes out there that never get reviewed. Flicking through rival magazines to “Singletrack”, all that ever seems to get reviewed are the same old same old – 100mm to 150mm trail bikes are in the majority, exactly the machines the manufacturers spend all their money and mag. space advertising. “Singletrack” to me seems a little better from the rest for me because of the articles written by real bikers and the occasional out of the ordinary bike review. Please keep this distinction and don’t just copy the others.
My interests are fast XC trail riding and XC racing. Recently I started cyclocross (which is insanely, lung birstingly good fun!) – and what was in the last issue of the mag.? Stories of “bonking”, 2 carbon hardtails and an article on ‘cross. That’s precisely why I buy “Singletrack”. I realise that to maximize sales you need to appeal to the largest demographic but please keep appealing to the “uncool” niches as well – lycra wearing racers, ‘crossers, marathon racers etc.
I would probably agree with more hardtail reviews as all the magazines appear to be flooded with full suspension reviews as Freewheel mentions; I would like to see a more objective view into the merits of both worlds and whether a rider has a real “need” to own a full suspension over a hardtail.
As a relatively new mountain biker who is ready now to take the plunge into a new bike, there is a mind boggling amount of choice and I genuinely don’t know what to go for. Do I just stick with a hartail and up the travel to 120mm or go for an All Mountain 160mm custom built beast? A more even spread of hartail and full suspension reviews would make that choice that bit more managable.
clarksons fiesta review was one of the best they’ve done for ages.
160mm front.
120mm rear.
18 gears.
70mm stem.
710mm bars.
Disc brakes.
It’s the future.
I like both but mostly full sussers these days ;] My Hardtail tend to be a little esoteric because of it. ;p
with the beach landing and the chase thru the shopping centre, all whilst paying out the guy who “wrote in asking for a proper review”? that was a goo review..!
Ben that as been the past here
I am riding hardtail as the moment as I don’t feel myself good enough to ride geared
I haven’t ridden my FS since Sept last year and I only it the once then. Most of my riding, “from the door” doesn’t require anything above my rigid SS. But then did a Trailquest on my SS on Saturday on the Chase and regretted it for the first 20 minutes. But after that wasn’t too bad at all.
Anway back to the point. Chipps talks about Hts with little variation seperating them. But then is there really too much difference between FS bikes these days? Any given travel bike will not be greatly different to any other in the same travel group. Lets face it, rear suss has now come down to single pivot, linkage activated single, floating pivot linkage and horst link. Ok there is the odd variant (Felt and Bionicon) but I don’t see reviews of HTs being anymore “boring” than FS bikes. As Chipps says at days end it may be more down to where and how you ride that informs your decision as to bike type.
How about some article/review where you look at riding and comparing inappropriate bikes in certain areas. Short & Mid travel FS in Brighton/South Downs, geared & SS HT and Rigids(26 & 29) at trail centres/the lakes etc. Mix it up. maybe there are surprises to be found.
interesting points here – ive never ridden a FS bike and been riding mountain bikes for over 10 years! Ive always stuck with a nice Hardtail! Live near london and there isnt anything around here that you “need” to have FS for. Even on Dartmoor or Exmoor I cope well with my hardtail. Agree with Freewheel above – only just picked up Singletrack recently and love the fact that the magazine is not all about going down the hill as fast as possible on the most expensive bike – its more about the enjoyment of the ride, the countryside and the fun! Surely….
Amen to that.
Hardtails requires skill
Full-sus requires money
Frankly, I find all the chatter about different suspension types and setups is rather tedious. How does it ride?!
There’s loads of difference in different HTs. Compare P7 with a 456Ti – same sort of thing done by different routes. Bikes like the Chameleon, Stiffee and Sub0 are a riot in short bursts. Racy carbon stuff?
The comparison between the Whyte 19 and the Pace305 was great (I liked the putty coloured Whyte too).
If 40% of readers are riding HTs then give 40% coverage to HTs. [BTW, I ride both]
Why not do a hardtail issue of singletrack? No full suss allowed! I.e. best HT race bike, best HT trail bike, best HT singlespeed. I want to hear about hardtails, I think many of them are far sexier than the full suss bikes often featured. Comparing HTs to fiestas and full-suss to ferrari is wrong imho. There are plenty of ferrari-like HTs out there.
I used to ride a full-suss but now have the geared HT and the ungeared HT
and I want to know about buying nice new HT bikes – full-suss just doesnt float my boat.
P.S. I am a subscriber so I’ll read whatever you send me anyway!
Well now you that you ask…..
I’ve been a single trach subsciber since the beginning but not really a biker during that time (young family and lots of minor injuries). I’m now looking to buying a bike and I’m left quite confused and certainly feeling that your not that intereste in less expensize bikes
I honestly felt I liked the bike despite the reviews, not because of them. It looked like the reviews were organised as top gear voyeurism or to convince the advertisers your customers were big spenders
There’s is no need for a What Mountain Bike spray of reviews but some reviews that help us decide between types of bikes would be nice
Hard tales of 100mm, 120mm and 140mm travel, pros and cons. With photos of the terrain you are describing. If your a bit out the loop the line typical trail centre is confusing. I’d done bits of the Marin trail and thought that was typical then a few months ago I went to Coed-y-Brenin…..
What do you get for 500 quid more? Hardtails at 700, 1200, 1700 and 2200 quid. All chosen to be great trail bikes for their price
Best trail bike for 1200 quid (choose your price point but not to high). Four reviewers build up/choose there ultimate trail bikes then compare them
Finally stem, handle bar and tyres. Tell me if you had to swop them, thats important. But please don’t bother telling me this 4,500 quid bike felt a bit sketchy in the mud with its semi slick tyres. Infact I sometimes wonder why in say a test of 4 carbon hardtails you don’t put the same tyres on all of them.
” I’m now looking to buying a bike and I’m left quite confused and certainly feeling that your not that intereste in less expensize bikes”
We have a test of four sub-£500 bikes in the next issue.
We also see how well a sub-£100 bike fares…
And we’re looking to see just how different you can make a bike with a hundred or so pounds worth of upgrades.
I gave up hardtails in 97 i think,,, even my single speed has been full suspension since 99
but then again i also compete in pre war cars with friction dampers so what do I now
Just let it go! ride what you like for what ever reason and enjoy the ride.
For most of us it doesn’t matter what you ride; what sets Singletrack apart from the crowd is its focus on why we ride.