Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 92 total)
  • Anyone else not get on with hardtails?
  • idiotdogbrain
    Free Member

    Idle thoughts whilst reading the “Too much bike” thread, and something I’ve been thinking about for a while now – whilst a decent HT is perfect for my local riding, I just can’t get on with them.

    It’s not in an “I need a FS bike” either – one of my bikes is a rigid steel SS which I love. I just can’t seem to gel with the unbalanced feeling of suspension at one end but not the other, so end up running the forks almost locked out.

    Suspension both ends; fine, feels balanced, don’t care how much travel.
    Rigid both ends; fine, feels balanced.
    Hardtail; nope, feels wrong.

    It’s not because the ones I’ve tried/owned have been cheap and nasty either – current one was £1200 new and WMB’s Trail Hardtail of the year.

    What am I not getting, and does anyone else feel the same?

    Paul-B
    Full Member

    Personal preference and riding style I guess.

    I have an Orange Crush 26er which was alright, good fun. I’ve recently sold my 160mm Cube Stereo for a Stanton Switchback with a 160mm fork on the front and I have no regrets about it at all.

    A friend commented how sketchy it looks riding behind me watching the back wheel bouncing around all over the place but I’ll be honest I don’t feel it and the imbalance of 160mm up front to 0mm on the rear never really crosses my mind.

    Just depends how you ride them!

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    You’re doing it wrong.
    Love my HT. So responsive and gets me up and down everything I want.
    The only time I miss my FS is big long days for comfort and feeling fresher and occasional uber rocky lines that I have to slow on.

    grtdkad
    Full Member

    Nope. Just two carbon HTs here and they’re both perfect.

    robgclarkson
    Free Member

    nope, i love my 456 and will always have a hardtail… i’m actually debating whether or not i should sell my full sus as the HT will do 95% of what my full sus can do…

    whitestone
    Free Member

    I can see where you are coming from, my suspension forks died recently so went to rigid carbon. It needed a little change to my riding style but it’s brilliant (especially with B+ tyres) and I manage most (if not more) things that I could before. Whenever I think about getting a FS I realise that there’s just two trails around here where it would be preferable to my HT and while I can do them on the HT, it’s just hard work and I just need to apply rule #5.

    @Paul_B The sketchiness of the backend of a HT is something my wife took a bit of getting used to having ridden a FS for some years, A FS bike “sticks” to the terrain whereas a HT or rigid pings around (for want of better terms). So long as you still get traction when you need it then letting the backend do what it wants is no big deal.

    Interesting to see Josh Kato’s bike for this year’s Tour Divide: A full-suss with Lauf forks. The rear suspension takes the sting out of the many miles of trail while you don’t need the weight and complexity of standard suspension forks for dirt roads, so something like the Laufs are ideal.

    jonnytheleyther
    Free Member

    Nope, love my Whippet.

    oldtalent
    Free Member

    Yes I can’t be doing with clattering over things getting shaken to death. Fine for a tow path pootle I’m sure but they are not for me.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Whilst i have no problem with hardtails in general, I always have similar thoughts about agro hardtails. If you are ploughing into stuff hard enough to need a 140+mm fork then the back end is going to be kicking like a mule. Maybe someone can explain them for me, cos I sure as hell don’t get it.

    Rorschach
    Free Member

    Fork set up (especially if longer travel) is key to avoid the front end diving too much.As is a different riding style.
    I never own a fs for more than about 9 months before I get fed up of it and go back to a ht.

    khani
    Free Member

    I’m not keen on long travel HT’s for this reason, owt over 100mm on a HT feels wrong..

    Rorschach
    Free Member

    Stop ‘ploughing into stuff’ and pick some actual lines? 😉
    See….’different riding style’

    buckster
    Free Member

    Stop ‘ploughing into stuff’ and pick some actual lines?
    See….’different riding style’

    Exactly, you cannot ride a HT like a FS, you have to look for the HT line rather than letting the shock take the hit at the back. Roots are a pain in the arse though.

    Saying that, Ive never owned a FS bike.

    whitestone
    Free Member

    @Khani I had the fork on my HT (Cotic Solaris) set at 120mm, felt fine but I think on a 26″ or 650b then 100mm would be right.

    If the majority of your riding is trail centres or rough stuff such as those trails around Ladybower then a FS is ideal otherwise a HT is more than enough.

    roverpig
    Full Member

    Yes. I recently sold my Solaris despite having quite an emotional attachment to it as I was forced to conclude that hardtails just aren’t for me. I don’t like the way you can get pitched forwards if the front end compresses or the fact that the front lets you plough through stuff only for the rear to beat the crap out of you. All personal preference of course, but I replaced it with a 5″ rigid fatbike, which suits me much better. More comfortable and more confidence inspiring (as the geometry isn’t always changing).

    This is all in addition to a good full-suss of course 🙂

    whatyadoinsucka
    Free Member

    a hardtail makes you pick your line better, its good to ride one from time to time to up your game, but my mate must have balls of steel the speed he goes down some singletrack our way.

    robinlaidlaw
    Free Member

    Yup, me. Certainly where I ride I get fed up of hardtails within a pretty short time and go back to full suspension. I don’t personally find that getting bounced around makes a ride fun, I find that the feeling of flowing along really fast and being able to smoothly hold lines through corners peppered with rocks and roots is fun, so for me, a hardtail is just less fun. I don’t personally understand this notion that a bike that smooths the trail out too much is less fun, perhaps it’s just not smooth enough where I am for this to ever be an issue.
    For what it’s worth, I get the impression that Steve Jones of Dirt magazine is pretty much anti hardtail too, or at least doesn’t see the point of them.

    kayla1
    Free Member

    You just get used to it, don’t you? Years (if you’re of an age, anyway) of riding them will make them feel ‘normal’. I love my 150mm HT but just can’t get away with FS bikes. I’ve tried, I’ve had various with different amounts of travel but they just bore me (because I’m not fast enough probably!)

    [troll] It’d be interesting to know how many FS riders have come into MTBing fresh from nappies, so to speak, and how many HT/rigid riders have grown up through BMX and therefore know how to ride a bike… 😉 [/troll]

    hairylegs
    Free Member

    a hardtail makes you pick your line better

    … Exactly!! … sure, for pure DH, an FS is the right tool, but an FS masks a skills deficit for most riding

    Lights blue touch paper and retreats 😀

    mindmap3
    Free Member

    Nope, I think they’re ace

    I’d got caught up in the have your cake and eat it of all mountain / enduro bikes but ended up sacking my 160mm bike and off for a hardtail because I found myself constantly riding the little hardtail that I’d built up for mucking about on. It was just so much fun. A bit slower through the rough stuff but quicker on the smoother stuff and it made me smile more. I also don’t need worry about pivot bearings etc and just chucking it in the garage after a wet shitty ride.

    I like longer travel hardtails and and currently running my Ti Switchback with 140mm forks. There are some places that I rode and my Rune was immense for but I just don’t get to ride them often.

    whitestone
    Free Member

    I seem to have switched between FS & HT several times. Currently on HT, have never ridden a BMX.

    chestrockwell
    Full Member

    I’m with the OP. I like the idea of a HT but when I ride one I wish I was on my FS. Every HT rider may think they’re a riding god but I’d prefer to ride further and faster, in more comfort.

    I’ve done my time on HT so won’t be going back any time soon.

    kayla1
    Free Member

    Different ideas of ‘fun’, isn’t it? If you like having to think about where you point the bike and like a little bit of sketch, ride a hardtail. If you like being able to blat about, flat out downhill, and not worry too much about what the back end’s doing, ride a FS.

    Bikes, innit. Fun.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    Always had one when I lived down south, got a lot of use out of it.

    Don’t make as much sense for my normal riding now I live up north, so I’ve been without one for the best part of a year.

    Guess what I just bought though…

    whitestone
    Free Member

    Aren’t most of the comments on this thread simply justifications for whatever the poster is riding at the moment? (myself included)

    kayla1
    Free Member

    Guess what I just bought though…

    A quarter of cola cubes and a 10p carton of pop? Do I win £5?

    kayla1
    Free Member

    edit- made no sense at all 😆

    philjunior
    Free Member

    I’m quite the opposite, whilst I see the benefits of a nice full sus, I just can’t get the hardtails off my fleet, indeed I just built one up.

    hairylegs
    Free Member

    Every HT rider may think they’re a riding god but I’d prefer to ride further and faster, in more comfort.

    … and every FS rider also thinks they’re riding like a god!

    When I did a stint as a ski instructor I always used to say it’s better to ski a blue or red in control and with style rather than hurtle down a black out of control just to earn the bragging rights. Maybe the analogy stretches to MTB??

    Lights touch paper of big rocket this time 😀 😀

    scratchadelic
    Free Member

    I ride rigid in the winter and stick suspension up front for the summer. I have tried fs a few times but it just feels strange. When I swap from rigid to ht in the spring it takes a couple of rides to get used to the feeling.

    robinlaidlaw
    Free Member

    It’d be interesting to know how many FS riders have come into MTBing fresh from nappies, so to speak, and how many HT/rigid riders have grown up through BMX and therefore know how to ride a bike…

    Well, personally I only rode BMX for a while during my uni years but I’ve been MTBing for something like 27 years so I rode fully rigid bikes for a lot of years before getting my first full FS. I know fine how to ride them and used to love riding a fully rigid bike (with the saddle all the way up) and just hopping over the rough stuff. However, trails have changed and got steeper and rougher and what you can do on a bike, or at least what you can ride at speed, has come on hugely since those days as suspension, tyres and geometry have improved and it would feel enormously limiting to go back.

    mikey74
    Free Member

    Hardtails are fine through the technical “gnar” and on proper “trails”: The problem I have with them is the constant chatter over hardpack ground, particularly on rough bridleways.

    kayla1
    Free Member

    However, man-made trails have changed and got steeper and rougher and what you can do on a bike, or at least what you can ride at speed, has come on hugely since those days as suspension, tyres and geometry have improved and it would feel enormously limiting to go back.

    Which is part of what you get out of riding your bike. It’s subjective, isn’t it, and there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’? I love my HT but then I don’t ride at trail centres much, but I do like riding down stairs and doing skids and wheelies 😆

    ravennexus
    Free Member

    Had a 456 with old zocchi 150mm travel forks on for years. Bought a orange partrio x cell 66 frame and moved everything over. Sold that and now have a ns bikes clash fram with 150mm revelation world cups.

    Hardtail are fine just gotta build up your thighs to take the bumps

    gregwaring
    Free Member

    Erm, a no from me to the OP i’m afraid. Have ridden everything from rigid to long travel full sus, currently have short travel FS, long travel FS, long travel HT. The HT gets by far the most use locally in the peaks and recently over 2 weeks in the alps (backcountry not bike park mind), and i’d say is the most predictably handling setup i’ve ever had.

    The unbalanced issue – I think you do need to put a lot of effort into getting your bike setup right to get the best out of long travel hardtails, and also your body position; you have to do a lot more work using your legs as suspension and getting your weight in the right place. However, surely it’s even worse with rigid… haven’t ridden rigid for a number of years now but friends advise it’s pretty brutal on the body (i.e much more so) on our local trails.

    gregwaring
    Free Member

    That said, ride whatever you enjoy. Fun is more important than fast anyway.

    robinlaidlaw
    Free Member

    Which is part of what you get out of riding your bike. It’s subjective, isn’t it, and there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’? I love my HT but then I don’t ride at trail centres much, but I do like riding down stairs and doing skids and wheelie

    No, absolutely, there is no right or wrong and it’s all down to what you personally like and indeed that’s what the OP asked about.
    I only ride at trail centres once a year at a guess, I always enjoy it but it’s a long trip when there’s great natural trails around where I live. I guess what I’m actually experiencing is that there is a quite a rise in the amount of rider built trails in the last few years and those are a great deal rougher and more technical than the predominantly walking trails that I rode 20 years ago when I was on a rigid bike. I’m in Scotland BTW, the walking trails were always fair game 🙂

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    As been said, it’s a different style of riding. Need to get the fork setup right. Then make the front work when you’re hitting the gnarr, letting the back end float over stuff.

    It’s long flat pedally rooty rocky sections when you’re tired that can get a bit tedious.

    it would feel enormously limiting to go back.

    Partly why I like a HT. Tackling steep rough stuff quickly is more of a challenge and harder work, makes it more fun IMO. If I was racing that stuff I’d definitely be on a FS as it would be quicker, but for fun and playing about I like a HT.

    robinlaidlaw
    Free Member

    Fun is more important than fast anyway

    Well, yes, but faster is funner 😉

    kayla1
    Free Member

    Well, yes, but the illusion of faster is funner, whether it’s actually faster or not

    Fixed, no charge 😀

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 92 total)

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