Hard tail or short travel – say max 120mm – full sus?

Horses for courses.

See the Olympic men’s race for more:

1st 90mm 29er FS
2nd 650b hardtail
3rd 29er hardtail

Depends.

depends on the course
(for the same rider)

Stronger legs ..

The red one. That’s science FACT.

I dont have a red one. Silver or White?

Silver is always faster than white.

Hmm. That’s the HT.

No, it’s all affecting my sensitive arse. I like a bit of comfort and find the lack of speed and flow during muddy winter riding causes a crashy thumpy rear end.

Depends on the rider
(For the same course)

Stick with your current bike, and race cyclocross in the winter on a proper cross bike.

Kryton57 – Member
No, it’s all affecting my sensitive arse. I like a bit of comfort and find the lack of speed and flow during muddy winter riding causes a crashy thumpy rear end.

Dare we say m t f u??? 😉

120’s quite generous but I’m faster on my 100mm 26 FS a) because I can’t ride a HT on a rooty XC course for more than 90m without being in serious pain and b)because it’s more forgiving of my poor line choice.

Even on rooty shortcourse it was faster though that’s more to do with my skill level (lack of) but I found I was able to pedal sections that my 26″ hard tail was just choppy and throwing me around on.

Mike – yes fair comment.

Adsh – this exactly my strategy – bash my way through and blast the small downhill sections. We are talking 2hrs on single track.

A rubber chicken?
I carry one all the time in my bottle cage… The legs stick out, you know, but it makes me look F .. a……s……t. Trouble is they’re a funny yellow’ish colour, so maybe it’ll clash with your bike.

Worth it I reckon. 😉

I’d take a ht on a groomed course or a fs on a natural one. If I could have only one it would be a fs such as an anthem that pedals really well.