I was enjoying a blat around cwm carn today on my hardtail. overtook a full bouncer who was getting a breather at the top just before you come round the vally towards the carpark. I kept going as you reach the bit where it gets very rocky i hear them gaing on me.
I put the hammer down but i cant shake this bloke the bike is kicking and bucking over the rocks i just cant go any faster and couldnt get no distant from him either. Anyhow its like this till the bottom. great fun.
But could he of kept up if he was on a hardtail aswell?

So how many of you can scalp a full bouncer on a hardtail?

Sounds like he would have flew past you had there been room!

Hmm where’s my hob nobs…

So how many of you can scalp a full bouncer on a hardtail?

Surely the bike is not the major factor here?

I put the hammer down but i cant shake this bloke the bike is kicking and bucking over the rocks i just cant go any faster

You should have lost the saw, stepladders and rest of your tools too. Dangerous and irresponsible if you asks me…

Think that down a rocky descent, a rider on an FS will be quicker than a rider on a HT, all other things being equal, and both bikes being suitable for the application etc. Though no doubt many on here will have a different opinion.

Bergante youve hit the nail on the head.
I had a bit of banter with the bloke at the bottom (covert assement of said geezer and bike).
Im not unfit and im not bad on a bike. So how much skill do you lose riding a full suspension?
I did take ground from him on the final desent but that was because he over cooked one of the bends you could hear the tyres locking up as he went into the bend,

didnt get that ground back 😆

yep a few years ago overtook a couple of sussers on my hardtail on the downhill at cwm carn, now got my full susser and haven’t been overtaken again

i think it’s more the rider than the bike

i do miss the hardtail as the susser has made me lazy in my line choice but i am quicker on it

I passed lots of people on full susses at deggy the other day, but that’s Probly cause I’m a single speeding big wheeled god 🙂 ,

i do miss the hardtail as the susser has made me lazy in my line choice but i am quicker on it

Probably quicker because you can be lazier, if that makes sense.

“It’s not about the bike”

Although the same rider will probably be faster on an appropriate full suss (i.e. not a full on downhill on an xc course) if you have different riders involved then the main difference will be that, not the bike.

Taking rougher but more direct lines isn’t lazy, it’s just the most effective way of riding a full sus bike.

On techie terrain the susser will always win on speed, but is it more fun? And is getting to the bottom as quick as possible the aim?

Currently trying to ditch my susser and going down to one HT.

Exactly, you can just take lines that the other cant or would be hindered by.

I cant wait to get a full susser, i get left for dead on the bumpy stuff!

yeah pretty much why i went down the full susser route, as much as i was enjoying the hartail and can definitly see the attraction – especially when it comes to cleaning

but i love desending very quickly and bollocks to the line choice, plus my legs/body are much less tired by the end of the day

on the whole i’d say i’m much happier riding the susser and wouldn’t go back

Let’s just say that if you use your legs right on a hard tail you can compensate a great deal for not having travel at the back. Although I don’t doubt that if you put the same rider on hardtail and full suss he’d be faster on the full suss.

My 2p worth

I think this is a case of blame the pilot not the co-pilot. A bike is only good as the rider. 🙂

I have no hope then, people say my bike is shite even when i am not on it!

I’ve rattled past folk on FS’s on my hardtail. And have had folk on hardtails rattle by me when I’m on my FS. Either way, I’ve never given a monkeys. As long as I’m having a larf, I really don’t care. I really don’t understand why folk always go on about this.

Yep… I’ve had a bloke on a ****’ great big Rottwiel complaining he couldn’t get past me on my hardtail and I’ve had FS bikes pass me so who cares? It’s about the rider and the route s/he chooses.

Like many here I have an HT and an FS but I am seriously thinking about selling the HT cos I can’t really justify having the money tied up in something that is always 2nd choice. I was persuaded by opinion on here to go for a ‘hardcore HT’ but I am not a good enough rider to get the best out of it so I think it’s going to go and I’ll use the dosh to replace tired kit on the FS. The one good thing is simply in having 2 bikes means there’s always one working. Downside of course you are always buying bits for 2 bikes.

i ride nothing but hardtails as i find them more fun and interact more with the trails my sundays are full of hardtail and full sus riders and usualy its the hardtails having the most fun and leading the pack,any bike can be fast in the right hands

Firmly back in the HT are more fun camp at the moment (for my local riding and the odd trail centre.) I like that it requires more effort. All my riding buddies are on FS bikes and I enjoy the challenge of riding the same stuff at the same speeds.

So, what you are saying is – you went in front of somebody at the top of a downhill section then held him up on the descent? 😉

I once thought of an original thread topic