Started life on a Hardtail till it broke.

Went to an Spesh Enduro as the only bike then decided a HT would be fun and got a Kinesis Phase, great chuckable bike, taught me how to ride again. Rode them 50/50.

Moved on a bit and got a Heckler and swapped the Kinesis for a 456. Both running 150/160mm forks depending on the mood.

One bike doesn’t replace the other. I will ride the same trails just differently.

The 456 is better on the steeper technical trail where turning is key, when it comes to letting it go the Heckler pulls away.

They are both built to last and hit things hard coming in around 34lb depending on what I swap round.

Got a puncture on the Heckler and the roller in the chain device went so been on the HT for a month before that it was the other way round.

For every bit your HT is better there is another where the FS is.

Generally when both are working the HT comes out for short fun or proving a point the FS comes out for the bigger days and the bigger hits.

Went from a Commencal Meta 5.5 to Giant XTC 29er

don’t regret it at all. Right decision for the riding i do.

Sometimes there is bumpy stuff on the flat or on uphills that you can’t stand up for.

You can always unweight or stand up completely, it just takes better balance. Dropping your saddle a fraction and dropping your heels to maintain pedalling leg extension helps with this.

You can always unweight or stand up completely, it just takes better balance. Dropping your saddle a fraction and dropping your heels to maintain pedalling leg extension helps with this.

It looks like you misunderstood me.

By unweighting your arse from the saddle, you are putting additional strain on your body by requiring the muscles of your legs, arse and core to remain under tension. If that strain is unnecessary for the current terrain; i.e. it is not steep nor technical, merely uncomfortably bumpy, it is a case of either holding an isometric muscle contraction for an extended period of time (painful depending on how good your muscles are at processing lactic acid) or sitting down (bumpy).

Put it another way; would you tell cyclists on the Paris-Roubaix to just “stand up” the entire way on their time trial / stiff racing bikes, or would you think a different solution might help?

If you can’t endure the extra strain from standing up for extended amounts of time, you’re simply not strong enough. Also, flat bumpy ground sounds like a good opportunity for some sprinting, some hopping, some manually, some general tom foolery where you’re moving around a lot. I never knew the terrain had to be up to a particular level of technicality in order do do something with the bike 😉

Get stronger, problem solved.

It’s not like you can really blame a bike if the rider does not have the fitness to make it up a particular climb. You accept you’re unfit and get fitter.

When I switched back to a hardtail one of the most embarrassing rides I did where I wish I’d had a FS was on ride basically on fields! It was just mile after mile of sun baked ruts where the farmer had ploughed the field and put the bridleway back in later. It might have only been mud but in the state it was in it was like rutted rock. The hard tail could obviously cope but standing up for 20miles is not particularly efficient or fast and sitting down meant getting beaten up. On the XC FS the same route in the same conditions is not a breeze but is very significantly faster and less fatiguing.

I went from a Flux and a 5 Spot in the shed to a Scott Scale. Absolutely no regrets, the Scale is much lighter, climbs better and looks awesome. I’ve ridden silly distances on it and not been too beaten up plus ridden many of the same trails and not had any problems (though a few buttock clenching moments!!) But then I am more of a roadie on knobblies so I appreciate the ar$e up head down position of the Scale a lot more than the slacker angles of the full sus bikes.

Really tempted by a Spark mind you…

Ridden hard tails for the past few years. Tried a santacruz superlight which was ok went back to hardtails…currently ride a Chumba hx1. Most of my riding buddies have full Suss and spend most of the time creaking along, fettling, I just find you get more bike for your cash with a h/tail

I have a SC superlight and built up a Soul. With the HT I find that I need to concentrate far more on the climbs, not least to keep traction, in a way that I don’t need to on the SL. And the SL is faster downhill, although that might just be my bad technique. Having originally really enjoyed the HT, I now find that I seem to using the SL far more than the Soul, to the extent that I’m considering moving the Soul on, enjoyable though it is.