Less than a page long and your already calling each other names…

I find the technical rough stuff easier on my full sus bike, whether it be climbing or decending having the suspension there helps when i make a wrong desision or put my body weight in the wrong place and end up heading for the rock rather than round it.
I am lucky enough to have both a full sus and a hard tail so when i feel confident over sections on the full sus i have a go at them on the hard tail as i know i need to be smoother.
As others have mentioned i do find simply getting out there more helps me get better more than what bike i ride, however i would probably chicken out of more stuff if i was on the hard tail rather than the full sus for trying stuff for the first time.

GW, apologies mate…..i missed this 😉 off my reply.

reason i am asking, is because i am gonna do some uplift days, and only have a spindly hardtail. i do not think it is up to the job.
i have been offered a swap for a nice robust full susser which may be more suitable.
just in 2 minds wether to swap or not.

Swap, no doubt in my mind based on your predicament.

You want to have as much fun as possible riding DH?
You want it to be as comfortable as possible?

Get the right tool for the job.

Plus sods law says that as soon as you make the swap, you’ll have reason to need a mile munching spindly hardtail again.

i wont be needing a mile muncher again for a while. mebee never if my next op dont work.

and i dont want to die trying to ride a 100mm travel hardtail down a downhill run…….. 😉

You know what to do then Ton!

I ain’t superstitious but that Sod is a right bastard and if I was in your situation I’d give all my bikes away as sure as shit stinks Sod will make sure you regretted doing it!

Hope all works out… pretty sure your oop North… dunno if the Pearce Cycles uplifts might be of interest? Some of the tracks are pretty tech but I’m sure Dave would be able to point you in the direction of some great trails that’d still make use of the uplift service…

thanks for the heads up mate, a weekend down shropshire would be nice.

“What would I be scared of exactly?”

buzz-lightyear – Member

Something that’s stiff, long and plush to man-handle. 😯

No worries Ton. 8)
for UK uplift first thing you want is a bike you’re not precious about getting uplift damage (although some uplift vehicles are way better than others in this respect) so borrowing other peoples bikes might not be a good idea either. next you want a bike suitable to the terrain you’ll be riding. if you’re using the uplift to access natural trails that may well include quite a bit of flat and possibly the odd short climb/push. solely for proper rough DH tracks a DH bike would be best but if it’s flowy/fast singletrack with jumps it may well be both faster and more fun on a hardtail but as you’re neither a DHer or a jumper I’d suggest something inbetween your XC hardtail and a heavy DH/freeride bike (vague I know 🙄 ). you shouldn’t need massive amounts of travel or a superlong/low/slack DH sled as you’re not going to be pinning DH runs. Also, if you still use your hardtail for bimbling about on you probably wouldn’t enjoy that at all on a big heavy DH/Freeride thing.
Can’t imagine you’d actually enjoy riding proper rough tracks, they’re generally a lot less fun if you’re not managing to ride them close to as fast as you can manage. proper rough tracks (think Ft Bill) hurt like **** if you brake drag your way down (even on a DH bike).

many UK uplifts won’t work very well if you want to use them to accessing non-DH tracks as using vehicles you’ll need to be at the bottom pick-up point by a set amount of time to make each lift so good local knowledge of the uplift forest/area will be needed.

have you thought about treating yourself to a holiday at a chairlift assisted resort?

which uplifts are you thinking of doing?

The one thing i’d say is that due to the way they run, if you’re not quick (as suggested) you have to either

a) sit at the top waiting for everyone to go first, freezing your gonads off
b) stop every couple of hundred yards to let folk through

I can’t think of a single uk dh course i’d prefer to ride on my ht isntead of my dh bike. Cwm Carn would be marginal, the rest no way. its not that it’s impossible on a ht (I can’t think of a UK trail I couldn’t ride on a HT) it’d just be a lot less pleasant

A HT will batter you about more as well, to the point where you’re very knackered after a day’s uplift

Ton- do you still want this here Kona 29er monster?

If I weren’t good at bikes I’d be torn between blitzing stuff on a 140/160mm monster everywhere (overbiked is a lot of fun) or learning on a shorter travel 120mm hardtail.

a full suspension bike

I’m crap at riding downhill, so I bought an all Mountain 6″ travel bike with slackish angles but still trail ridable and went to see the Smiley Dude at UKBikeskills, I’m still crap, but I’m not as scared and take stuff rather than the chicken runs. more often than I used to.

Do the jumps and drops course, he’s got this course that goes over rocks, round berms, with hits & drop offs in easy levels that increase with your confidence, you don’t get to ride the entire course til he thinks you’re ready.

Seriously better pay him first it’ll make you better whichever bike you ride, just don’t let him convince you it’s to do with his bottle rocket – nasty bike I couldn’t ride it – er apparently because I’m a girl or should have been.

Ton- do you still want this here Kona 29er monster?

luke, no mate, i do not want the kona. my understanding was that they were getting one in for me to have a look at and to maybe test ride. and like i said before, i am unable to ride at present, so i cant do a test ride.

one thing, I found riding downhill fast really knackering.