I was doing some black and red runs in Italy (near grand st bernard I think).

I was riding my 140mm hardtail, and riding with some other guys who were all on 160mm full sus bikes. I could keep up with them for so long, and then they'd slowly pull away from me and I could never catch them back up. It felt like I couldn't go any faster then I was already going.

It just felt like every time I tried to put a bit more speed down the back would get ridiculously jumpy, trying to kick me off loads whenever it hit something. Obvious thing would be to pick a smoother line, but even on the smoothest lines I could see it still felt the same. Should I have put more weight forward? More weight back? Or had I found the bikes limit?

haha your bike is teh shitzor. lolz.

They were better than you?

Can you really not accept this?

either its your bikes limits or your own

you've let everyone here down and you've let yourself down.. you should be ashamed..

either its your bikes limits or your own

Well yeah, I already figured that one out. But when the back end is trying to kick you off constantly, is that because I'm doing something wrong?

To be honest you should be banned from STW for sucking so hard.

And we're twice your age.

Surely It dosent matter If you can keep up with them ? , they are on full sussers and probably know the trails. I was quite pleased the other week when I did Gt Black for the first time on my fairly basic Gt hardtail whilst there were a pair of guys on a Patriot and Zesty creeping down the tracks. Dont get me wrong Im a bit of a Pootler but surely your skills can only improve when your back end Is jumping all over the place . Financially I dont think I could stretch to a decent FS and HT and probably If I could I'd still end up on a hardtail.

Should I have put more weight forward? More weight back? Or had I found the bikes limit?

bit hard to diagnose on the internets but sounds like you need to unweight the rear a bit more…

kick you off why? are you relaxed riding it? do you comfort brake? are your feet in the right place? many things could be it

Surely It dosent matter If you can keep up with them

It wasn't about keeping up with them, it was more about me feeling like I could've gone faster on a longer travel bike. Which sounds obvious. But I don't have a longer travel bike, so really I want to know how to go faster on my bike. Or to know if its not possible, which I doubt.

And we're twice your age.

At least! 😀

kick you off why?

It just felt really jumpy, like every time I hit a decent sized bump the back would kick up and the saddle would hit me up the arse. I couldn't seem to stop it, apart from to slow down.

Weren't you injured? I think without that you'd have probably upstaged us, even without the skill compensating travel.

Also have you thought about your suspension set up? You can have more travel but if its poorly set up it won't perform well. My coil sprung five seems to track well…..

Sounds like you want an excuse to get a full sus? Do it 🙂

Was it a social ride, where the far superior riders gained great pleasure from dusting the slowest rider?

OP – sorry if it has been said, but the back end on a 140mm bike should not try to kick you off. Have you tried more rebound damping? Or are you a big bloke with an air shock running lots of pressure?

EDIT – just re-read and noticed that you said hardtail… yeah, get a full suss.

I get this too. I just dont like the way a hardtail jumps up at the back compared to a FS. I just prefer to ride FS I find it more comfortable.

Realman, you need a full susser. I recently moved from long travel HT to FS and was amazed at the increase in speed and how much more my eyeballs stayed in my head on long rough descents. I came to the conclusion that with a HT the fork will be compressed by impacts on the front wheel and when the rear wheel hits it the bike will buck compressing the fork even more. You will eventually run out of fork travel, no matter how much you "use your legs for rear suspension".

Sounds like you're tired to me, legs just not soaking up the bumps like they were when you set out.

APF

High speed rough ground is so different on a full sus that it's unreal. On the other hand, full sus would be boring as hell for most of my riding – it feels like sitting in a comfy car, not mountain biking 😆

FS = faster downhill shocker!

You don't see many hardtails at worldcup downhill races….

p.s. tron – you must have a car withh shite suspension, or be riding pretty smooth trails on that full sus 🙂

haha your bike is teh shitzor. lolz.

Is this English?

either its your bikes limits or your own

Or both.

Make sure that your skills are right before you opt for the "better" bike, though.

obviously you needed a beer, that would have sorted the men from the boys, oh it's you… best get a skillz compensator then.