Hey,

sure a lot of you guys have both bikes so was wondering how you make the decision on what bike to take?

Black runs = full sus?
Red/blu = hardtail?

Love my all mountain full sus but sometimes it just numbs the riding on flatter stuff. Thoughts?

full sus to the mountains
hardtail to the hills is my rule of thumb

good call!

hardtail for work out (also sharpen up your bike handling)

fullsus for fun (jumps/drops)

both get ridden any grade green to black doesn’t matter

Which ever one is working. It just a bike and some hills.

SS Ti hardtail, fully rigid every time.

Keeping it real since ’92

full suss is overcomplicated and energy sapping 🙂

roundwheels – yes i agree, the hardtail is good for sharpening the skills on less demanding terrain.

full suss is overcomplicated and energy sapping

lets be honest here its not, its only complicated if your brain is in upside down

though, if you ride one of these little rippers:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Eagle-Vista-Suspension-Mountain/dp/B001ASJL6U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=sports&qid=1236641681&sr=8-1

get pro pedal on the case son!

giddyrob i dont mean jump in at the deep end. start by puting you seat down, it also makes you think about your lines more (looking for the smoother line)then go back to your f/s and you well feel like a god .

? seat down? You mean when you are riding the hardtail as a training tool for the full sus.

Don’t really ride trails with my seat up though. Save that for xc stuff 🙂

It’s a mood thing. My HT is more of a barge/blunder-tank than the 5″ FS which is more zoom, skippity hop. Am thinking of dismantling the HT and rebuilding it on a 15″ Brand-X dirt/4x frame – just to practice my handling around town features and the on local dirt/quarries.

I only have a hard tail. Makes life easy

not if you are on a downhill course 😉

Never come across one I haven’t been able to get down yet.

try nz! Glentress blackrun (love it though i do) is a chicken run compared to some stuff over here.

Why aren’t the downhiller’s running hardtails if that’s all ya need 😉

Full suss, 2 reasons….

#1 I’ve got arthritis in my spine (Ankylosing Spondylitis)

#2 I only own one MTB now, had to sell the hardtail & oldskool rigid Scott

I used to ride rigid steel forks & frames BITD, but I simply cannot ride even a hardtail off road without being in major pain for a long time afterwards.

I do use a oldskool roadie (’78 Falcon with Shimano 600 Arabesque) as my beer scooter though….

“try nz! Glentress blackrun (love it though i do) is a chicken run compared to some stuff over here.”

Glentress Black (more like a red) is a chicken run compared to some of the stuff in the UK too

“Why aren’t the downhiller’s running hardtails if that’s all ya need”
Probably because they’re wanting to get down as quick as they can. That and marketting hype

point is, there is a point to full sus bikes. Just like there is always room for hardtails.

I like both xc and all mountain stuff so it’s good to have a hardtail and a full sus. Though I reckon a cove stiffee would be fun on some of the runs I do.

james – I agree glentress should really be a red run, but it is still fooking mint for a long blast!

FS = cracked
LT HT = cracked
XC HT it is then

Whichever one I fancy. After several months of HT I am now back on the FS.

Can ride anything on my HT that I ride on my FS but no question the FS is faster (but not necessarily more fun) on something like a DH run.

Riding both gives you different skills that transfer back to the other.

However it just a bike and some hills so I think it best not to over think it 🙂

depends if i own a full suss at the time, i either get bored of havign nothing to do or scare myself shitless with the extra speed.

Varies. Lately taking the Stiffee everywhere. Usually ride FS if it is a long day as it is less tiring on the old body

Tend to take my FS to trail centres and up on the big hills, and use my HT for things like blatting round the local woods or if there’s going to be some tarmac involved.

Then again if I feel like leathering it round a trail centre sans black run I’ll take the HT and if i wanna prat about in the woods in bomb holes and on jumps etc I’ll use my FS.

full sussers are not required in the UK – well for uplift days but thats about it

i take either, depending on my mood and riding location.
neither’s better, just different…..

ive ridden Hartail on double blacks with no problems, but primary bike is a full suss, and as trail centres tend to allow you to carry more speed, i go with FS now.
zoom zoom
hardtail has now been delegated to Singlespeeding, so it used for especially muddy rides, and rides where i cant be bothered with the cleaning afterwards.
though still fun at a trail centre, as lack of pedalability means you can focu more on keeping your speed, staying off the brakes and riding smooth.

One bike, one gear, one me, one hill.
Just ride!

HT – Cheap, works

FS – Wee hee for big rocks and drops.

HT is all that is needed for ‘fun’ in the Peaks for all but a few downhills. (With a good pair of big volume tyres and good forks).Even going around Innerleithen XC track the other day and I thought it would be more fun on the HT.

double blacks where? in the UK then fair enough but in Canada then I am impressed, some of the single blacks I couldn’t see how you would walk down them, let alone the double blacks (30 ft gap jumps anyone)

UK im afraid, never been abroad 🙁
i think the grading system is a bit vague anyway.
Llandegla black for instance is only as black as you make it.
i think its more an indication of how much speed you can carry around there, theres nothing “hard” as such…

whereas, yep, some runs come up as reds and seem to comprise soley angular rocks spattered in blood….
i hate rock gardens 🙁 no flow, no fun.

LoL Olly, UK blacks are Canada blues so you really don’t need a FS for any I’ve ridden over here. Mind you Stainburn and Laggan blacks (which I haven’t ridden yet) are supposed to be almost black worthy trails.

Last year I was in Nelson looking at some of the trails and laughing, as it looked like you would need ropes to get down some of the stuff 😉

nb: and I am a very average rider ( ie: shit )

sharki – Member
One bike, one gear, one me, one hill.
Just ride!

There’s a t-shirt slogan and some money in there somewhere Sharki 😉

Hardtail for everything UK except Downhill courses. Even then sometimes use the hardtail for downhill.

meh meh
use what you want to use i say.
theres no NEED to even get out the car in the first place

horses for courses, and all that guff.

at the moment Im running a hardtail for everthing..

but thats because I havent got the pennies to get a full susser yet

me:full suss is overcomplicated and energy sapping

lets be honest here its not, its only complicated if your brain is in upside down

I meant ‘prone to failure’. On my Intense, the shock eye bush would last about 10 weeks before it started knocking, and I’d have to replace numerous small cartridge bearings every year and dismantle the air shock to grease the insides etc. And all this effort to make the ride over rocks less exciting 🙁

“either get bored of havign nothing to do or scare myself shitless with the extra speed”

Yeah, I’ve noticed that! I really like my FS as a do-it-all bike, speed, pop, etc but I can’t get over the feeling that a really good, 25lb HT is the best fun for 2-4 blasts on typical trails around here.

Fancy a Whyte 19 now!

FS as i cant be bothered with fully rigid beating me up all the time.