when i was deliberating hardtail or full sus, some people said things like " full sus is better, when you get used to it"

i have a full sus now and have had for three month,im more than happy with it but am a little unsure what i have or had to get used to??
im wondering am i riding it to its full potential or am i missing something?
in short what's to get used too???

Not having a bad back? Being able to pedal sections where you'd have to stand and freewheel? etc?

I'm with you on that one. In reverse, I got a HT after years of FS riding and at no point did I 'pick my lines' etc. Yeah its slightly different, but I really feel some folks just look way too much into their riding/bike instead of just riding and having a larf on them.

only thing i find is the suspetion give in certain situations.if im aproaching a pothole say, i would normally just hoik on the bar and lift over but if the fork are compressed at that moment you can get less rapid rising of the front end as you begin by pulling the forks up, then the front end etc etc.(did that make sence)
not that im not riding it or enjoying it…

(did that make sence)
1st bit yes, in a roundabout way.
2nd bit ("not that im not riding it or enjoying it… ") No.

Getting used to just blsting over everything and not actually using your brain.

HT FTW!

totaly different climbing technique.
totally different decending technique.
im not sure how your NOT getting it?

Tech Climbing on my HT involves relativly lots of braking, moving the front and rear wheels more indpendantly and generaly working the whole bike, climbing with the handlebars.

climbing on a full suss involves sitting, spinning the cranks, and winding up, choosing the route that will give the suspensions the best chance of doing its job, keeping the wheels stuck to the ground, at both the pushing and the steering ends.

descending on a HT (a v stiff alu one) involves picking the line that looks like it will be as smooth as possible, to limit speed lost to bouncing around, and riding the fork through the rough stuff.

descending on a FS involves looking for surfaces and planes that couldnt be used before.
what was once a loose rocky step down to be taken with care is now a downslope for a landing from a root a few foot back up the trail, rather than bouncing over it, it can be pumped for more speed and control.
let the extra bit of forgivness worry about keeping the wheels on the ground.

not riding a monster FSer either, shorter than most i think? both bikes are fairly short travel, FS is 4" at the back 5" at the front.

There are definitely times where I would stand on a hardtail and power up short slopes and I want to on my full suss.

But I dont because extra power is need because the suspension absorbs some of my energy.

To be honest this only really makes a difference when Im tired and my knees are hurting.

If your the sort of person who tends to sit through everything anyway I cant see you'd need to change your style as full susses tend to be more set up for this in fact Id imagine it will be easier.

As for picking your lines again it depends what hard tail / full suss your going from.

To be honest I think theres more of a difference in the type of tires you use.

If I have going from a fat full suss with massive tyres to a skinny hard tail on race tyres I'd definitely pick my lines more carefully.

I found a big difference,

On the HT the fastest line was the one of least resistance, i.e. the smoothest bit of the trail.

On the FS the fastest line is the shortest (or largest radius in the corners) pretty much regardless of whats on it.

The FS has a lot more rear grip in the corners

Its nearly impossible to do a british bunnyhop on a FS, it just absorbes the bounce.

Jumping requires a different technique for the same reason.

ok, i think im being coseted a bit so there for arnt seeing the problems id encounter on a ht. im prob just blasting through/over it…

Ohh, and FS took a fe minutes to get used to where the rear wheel was, so when using a tree stump or exit of a berm to lift the bike into the air, the rear end compessed, and extended, whereas on the hardtail it would have been airbone already, so had to ajust the timing of swinging the back round with my hips (the first time i was way to early and ended up straighlining into a tree!).

You need to generally smooth out your pedalling technique with a FS otherwise it absorbs half your energy.
Downhill you can pick what line you like on FS, rather than picking the smoothest line with an HT.

If you sit and pootle, then there's probably little difference. If you want to actually ride the thing then there's a whole world of new techniques to learn to maximize the benefits of fs. Don't believe this 'skill compensator' crap, watch some dh riders for ideas…

Get used to the heaps of confidence it gives you 😉