I've not been on my bike that much this year

The good news is that I went round Penmachno last week. But it was another nail in the coffin for my current bike. Twisted rear mech and mech hanger.

My current bike is an elderly Orange Gringo. The transmission is worn out, there are teeth rippped off the middle chain ring. It still has V brakes. Suspension is a 70mm pair of Marzocchi Z2's currently way under sprung for my body weight. I use Mary bars which help alot and bigish tyres (2.35 high rollers).

I have a long term wrist problem and on the rougher bits of Penmachno i was really feeling it through the bars, the forks were way out of their depth.

Funds are available for a new bike and surely a modern long forked hard tail will be be sending alot less clouts through to the bars? I'm thinking of an Altittude core 10 or the off the shelf 456.

How much extra benefit (if any) if I spent say an extra 500 and went FS. I think I would probably need to work the bike less and sit down more which would meam probably less work for my wrist. But will their be less clouts coming through to the bars?

Thanks for reading

cheers

John

No more front end comfort from FS.

Go for one of on-one 456 packages.

I'm lucky enough to ride both. FS best for comfort and on the knarly stuff. Hardtail much more fun on singletrack.

Depends on terrain. Locally it's more singletrack so hardtail better there.

think FS is more comfortable as you don't get bucked out of the saddle so much and thus transfer weight to hands/wrists etc

You'd think FS would help but I guess it will be very personal so you should try one.

Don't underestimate the variation in grips for wrist comfort. I tried Oury's for the first time last year and I'll never go back to lock-ons which I now realise are really hard.

Are yes local terrain. Thats part of the problem. I live in Bedfordshire. My local trails are almost all fine on my current bike, I can think of only one bit of worth while local trail where I'm to uncomfortable through the bars. So I a hard tail would be fine locally

Its those rocky trails that are the issue.

Still happy to hear more opinions. Not really on overalll comfort, clearly way better on FS but specifically at the bars. The problem being I've only ridden a bike with modern decent forks that was also FS

cheers to those who've responded

Edit, yes big squigy grips help alot

I have problems with my thumbs (having mashed them up in various incidents in the past) and for long rides I stick a pair of Ergon grips on. They're obviously very un-cool, but they completely alleviatet the pain I get with racy grips.

Also remember that there a lot of things that change the pressure on the wrist – stem length & angle, bar width & rise, seatpost rigidity. I reckon FS would generally remove pressure, but any more than a suspension post? Possibly not.

I have tried Ergon grips and suprisingly for me they made things worse!

The issue for me being that my wrist doesn't like being bent back. So when I stand up the ergons stopped my wrist rotating. Thats not Ergaons fault its just one of the variations between people. Mary bars was the magic bullit for me. The fact that I could ride Penmacno on a crappy bike is testament to the difference they made. But Ideally I need one more step. I was still a bit sore the next day (but not on the ride, thats adrenalin)

A suspension post is a good idea as something to try

Look at cane creek ergo bar ends. They give you a really comfortable alternative hand position. I sprained my wrist badly in February riding my bmx , and have found these help massivelly. I use them alot. Only problem is I'm constantly worrying about the fashion police catching up withme…