totally rideable on a hardtail if you are used to downhilly stuff.
Raced a Karate Monkey rigid on v-brakes, nearly died a few times due to v-brakes and trying to overtake orange 5’s in rocky bits, scared some big hit DH bike riders as well.
Had immense fun and aimed to do it this year but upgrade to disc brakes.
It’s down to the confidence and ability of the rider more than the bike being ridden.
The black has a couple hundred meters that are very steep and rocky wheelgrabbing holes, the top section is loose rubble and fairly flat, when you drop down into the shored up corners, thats the scary part, lower 1/3 is fast and furious. Oh and many consider it instant death if it’s wet and mud is dragged all over the steep rocky bits, fair few photo’s of racing in those conditions on the net.
Of course pre-walking the track so you know where the big holes and blind drops are will help 🙂 doing blind runs on DH tracks can get interesting on the first go 🙂
The red is a lot more mellow and easier going, they have done a stack of work since i was there last year, i was hoping for more swoopy bermed corners and little jumps, going on the photo’s on the FB page thats what it has.
If you need a big bike take one, if your happy you can get down on a hardtail, take one…. or take both just to be sure.