[Closed] Anyone ride fully rigid or hardtail as their sole bike?

I've just bought my first full suss frame, been MTBing 13 years! (before that I was just a kid messing arround on bikes)

I have two hardtails, one rigid. Picking up another ht/SS tomorrow. its the faff looking after a full sus that puts me off (and I just dont see the need)

I have a hardtail as my only mountain bike.

I also have a road bike and a bmx but these dont require any looking after.

Mate has a zion with a nukeproof fork. He doesnt like suspension,

Only ever ridden hardtails. As per ricochet, I dont see the need!! Much easier to look after.

i'd reccomend keeping the commuter and MTB separate. swapping wheels over is faff and the cassettes wear at different rates and start skipping after a while. its just as easy + cheaper to swap the tyres.

one hardtail as a mountain bike, had a full sus it was nice but prefer the less to go wrong with a hardtail. just had to get some bearings and get them fitted fro my brother in laws titus, full cost £95
do havea road and a cross bike fro commuting on but these need minimal looking after. toying with getting rid of one of these as well and commuting on the hardtail in winter instead of teh corss bike, although tbh i can't see it happening.

my caveat is that i am looking after the titus for a coupel fo years, although i think i've ridden it twice, i always go for the hardtail

1 Cotic Soul (most of the time singlespeed) and 1 pub/commute bike. Don't feel the need for anything else.

Only ever had hardtail or rigid. Just bought a full-susser, but with potential redundancy round the corner going to have to sell.... 🙁

Same here, & the same kind of thinking.
Have nice FS but right now the SS Inbred is bike of choice.
Cant see me wanting the FS again, toying with keeping just 2 HT's...

SS Inbred
Geared HT, probably a Sanderson Life. (Everyone has a Soul & I had one for a while but fancy something different).

Doubt I'll ever be without the SS though, for me its the connection with what got me into biking all them years ago. And its hassle free.

My sole bike is a Soul.

(excluding the 2 ye olde worlde bikes lost under a pile of junk in the storeroom)

Had a full sus (Trek EX8) which got nicked so built up a HT (ns bikes society) as a stop gap and a year later it's still my only bike.

Commute to work on it, weekend rides, trail centres, enduros etc... does the job just fine and puts a bigger grin on my face than the trek ever did.

Might have to bite the bullet and get a second hand 6" full susser for the trip to Morzine in July though.

A hardtail with 100mm forks and a rigid for commuting. Knobblies for the off-road, slicks for tarmac, spds on both. Ideal for me.

Hardtail only, ride local trails nearly every ride. A fs would be good but just aint required for local trails.

takisawa, YGM

Only got hard tails now and road bikes. Soul, Alpine and an old Kona Explosif which has been made into a single speed local blast/pub bike. Wish I could reduce them down to one do-it-all though. Have ridden full suss in the past (Kona Dawg and a Giant Reign) but seem to prefer the feel of a hardtail and, more importantly, a hardtail seems to suit my riding style (such as it is!!!).

Ive got two bikes, a rigid SS inbred and a fixied road bike for commuting and pissing about.

I am building up another bike but in all honesty these two bikes are more than enough for me.

not since they were all rigid have my bikes been all rigid. If that makes any sense at all.

I have pretty much always had a fully rigid bike knocking around but I couldn't really imagine doing all of my biking fully rigid (except the road stuff ofc).

if you have 2 crown races, swapping forks is a 5 minute job though so you could have a HT with a rigid fork to swap out as needs be.

Hardtail all the way, with an extra set of wheels for training on

I now have a rigid inbred, a burly inbred with pikes and a blur 4x. Don't think I'd part with any of them. Love riding them all!

So the general consensus is no one bike four wheels is not enough.

I have a hardtail Pipedream Sirius as my only bike, ive used it for the local weekly ride, wales, yorkshire dales, thetford, xc comps and its done me fine. I cannot afford more than one bike so thats why i only have one.

3 Bikes; a 27lb pimped Prophet (XTR, Stans, Tompson, blah), a Charge Duster Ti ((XTR, Stans, Tompson, blah), ), a Cotic Simple (stylo's, old hope m4's).

I only ever ride the Simple; today I just recieved some spanking RC31's to replace the RC41XCAM's that have been on it since day one.

I need to sell the other bikes but the second hand value puts me off so much.

Don't sell them, ride them!

1 giant xtc hardtail used for everything, 75mile a week commute and throwing around at weekends.

Have never owned FS. Only owned 1 hardtail. All my other bikes have been rigid. Im sure FS is better, but a: Ive never found myself particularily wanting for one when out with other rides on them. And b: I cant afford a FS of the same quality of my current hardtail. I'd rather a mid to high end hardtail over a low to mid and FS.

I only ride rigid hardtail mtb but I do have morethan one bike, commute/cross/tourer and road/race

I commute 20miles a day and need to tow my youngest on a trailer bike so mtb is too slow and I like to do long >70mile rides + sportives, I could do them on my tourer but it would be a slog.

I used to have many more but had the same feelings you do so I rationalised. I do swop tyres and between SS and geared. I even tried to rationalise that with a Rohloff but I liked just SS.

I do like FS but they've always let me down mechanically. Currently on an HT with a coil Pike, which is my one and only bike. More fun than anything I've ever ridden downhill, as good uphill (love the directness), only downside is bumpy flat riding. I get frustrated when the smallest rock, root or dip can throw you up in the air - stuff you don't notice uphill but do if you're trying to maintain speed on the level.
Don't have the money for anything else, though...

Just got my S-works HT which does for all my riding, although I don't commute to work on the bike as I have to take my van with me, I did commute on it at my previous job though.

i only have my merida, i would love a posh bike, but i cant afford one 🙁

I only have a hardtail - I live in a small flat and don't ride that often, so anything more'd be a luxury. Cotic Soda, Revs with lockout, spare set of Spesh Nimbus road tyres and I'm sorted. I don't live far enough to cycle to work now, but when I did it was just a case of swapping the tyres on a Sunday evening; and riding the same bike during the week kept me keen on getting soaked/ cold/ muddy in the hills at the weekend.

just done exactly that, sold 2 full suss's (trance and anthem) and a tcr roadbike, and pocketed some (not very much tbh) cash and i've ended up with a rigid hardtail (with some suss forks in the garage in case i need them)

Took it out for its first proper ride today, and i love it.

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Do it!

have a hardtail ss as only bike admittedly ive ridden exactly zero times this year but had a steel rigid ss as only bike for a few years and was riding every week*

*some would say like a jessie

I have my Inbred set up with steel forks and fat albert tyres these days. I previously had 80mm Bombers on it, but didn't really see the need for local trails.

I have a cheap folder and old Raleigh racer for commuting duties, should I ever fancy it. To me using an expensive mountain bike for commuting is just daft when there are any number of cheap bikes you could be doing it on, and not worrying about.

Dialled PA with Pikes is my only MTB. It's been adaptable enough that I've not really felt the need for anything else - use it for local blasts, trailcentres, the odd all-day ride, bit of arsing about on jumps, it does it all so well.

i have two bikes. one fully rigid winter mud bike/commuter and the other is a HT.

i had a full sus but found that it stayed in the garage and would only come out 10 times a year as my HT is more than adequate around my local trails.

I did til about 3 days ago, tbh the Soul does everything I need from a bike but I decided I could do with something a bit more descendy for fort william and places like that. But I could "get by" with just the Soul, no bother.

If my ribs could take it I'd be happy with a rigid bike. I don't know if other people suffer from it but on rough ground after riding for a while I get stabbing pains around my lower rib cage when riding a rigid bike.

I went from having a trials bike, bmx, down hill bike, xc bike and street bike to just an xc bike. You miss the perks of having multiple bikes / options but you improve skills on a single bike. I mainly wanted a single ride as I couldn't afford to pimp them all as I don't like standard bikes

Currently have two (working) bikes, both of which are rigid singlespeeds -a Surly 1x1 for offroad and Cotic Roadrat for road / light offroad. Pretty much all I need for the riding I do 90% of the time and both bikes refreshingly faff free. Have a third (geared) hardtail frame in the shed along with a set of (old, pre Taiwan) Bomber comp air forks which I'm trying to decide what to do with at the moment. I don't have enough spare bits to build it up as a complete bike but reckon I'll keep it in reserve for a gnarly day when I can cannibalize bits from the Surly. I can think of some rare occasions when some front suspension would be welcome on the Surly (a particularly rocky downhill last week springs to mind), but it somehow seems a bit wrong to not run it fully rigid. I think the 'zocchis may be a bit long anyway.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not some beardie "steel is real" evangelist - if I regularly rode somewhere a bit more hilly / rocky I'd definitely consider getting an long travel hardtail or perhaps an FS... but the fact is I don't so my bikes at the moment just suit their intended purpose really well.

i use the hummer for 99% of my coaching.

hardtails rock

Only ever owned hardtails and rigids, and ride rigid single speed mainly nowadays, also have a road bike for training on. Personally the only real development in all the years of biking I really rate are hydraulic disk brakes. The trails of Britain are not really that different than 20 years ago, when rigid was the only option.

got 3 bikes.

Marin Quake - DH, silly rides
Merlin Malt - all day rides out in the peaks and NYM, commuting in Holland
GT Hans 'No Way' Rey - trials, jumping and commuting about sheffield

i've also got a road bike build in progress, but i'll probably never finish that as the merlin is good enough for my needs. I'd never buy a FS for xc duties. If i had to have one bike for all purposes, it'd be an early 90's GT Zaskar (about 12.5''!)

I can't afford a full susser and don't want the weight or all the expensive pivots and bushings to replace.I never needed it in 1984 and don't need it now!!

I never needed it in 1984 and don't need it now!!

What happened in 1984? 😯

hardtail here 🙂

I have a 24 pound blinged out Santa cruz superlight - full XTR, DT1540 wheels etc and a rigid Cotic Simple. The Simple is all I ride. The Superlight gathers dust. I broke my Pace RC31 fork the other day and had to wait for a Nukeproof replacement so I was forced to ride the Superlight. It is a great bike but I really missed the Simple.

I am so glad its now fixed and I can get back to some real riding!

I've just a long-fork HT (had 2 FS's, then an FS and race HT), and a commuter.

Keep a commuter, its the one you don't worry about if its stolen, that way you're not going to the shops on 'bling'.

2 bikes, 456 with gears and revelations and Scandal with 1 gear and Rebas. Haven't used the 456 for a while as I'm loving the Scandal, and the 456 needs some tyres and grips. To be honest although I love the 456 I'm not even missing the longer fork at the moment. Might be different when it dries up a bit and things get faster. If I did get a full susser it'd be something like an Anthem for long days out, light and comfy.

If you are commuting everyday you NEED a road bike with full mudguards.
I am managing fine with 1 MTB- a Foes with suspension both ends.

When I had more MTBs they all always seemed to be in bits, but now I am happy with the bike as is and just maintain it.

three hardtails, Giant XTC has RC31s up front. Never owned a full suss, don't need it where I ride.

100mm hardtail MTB as main off road bike.
Rigid hardtail MTB as commuter/tourer.
Fast/racy road bike for fun on the road.
BMX for hurting myself properly.

Would love a full susser, but:
1 - Can't justify another bike.
2 - I'm not sure it would make riding any more fun, just faster and with a greater possibility of broken limbs.
3 - Bikes have got very expensive again recently.
4 - Not sure riding more 'extreme' stuff would give me any more satisfaction. I think I'd just like to ride the same stuff I do now, but better.

However, have met a couple of people recently who have built up old Giant full suss frames as budget bouncers, and this really appeals - might be my first ever self-build when I finally get access to a shed/workshop.

I've got a full rigid Swift due to being stuck in London, budget & space limitations, laziness and creeping suspicion that I would be over biked.

Have had lots of bikes over the years, and had lots at one time, but seemed to spend most of my time on my SS HT. So lots went and down to one SSHT and one 9sp HT. I have not missed the front mech yet. All seems just right for the moment, though I can borrow one of 'sprog' James FS (really DH) for the odd fling 😯 down a DH track, once a blue moon.
I am a serial bike builder so can't last too long 😳

Hard tail here. Had a full suss, but fancied the pseudo-back-to-basics thing.

Love it.

Just gone back to HT myself from a Yeti 575.
So now have a long travel HT, a DMR switchback.
A rigid SS Voodoo Wanga and another rigid SS parts bin commuter.

ctk - Member

If you are commuting everyday you NEED a road bike with full mudguards.

funny - I have managed with mountainbikes for commuting for decades. Ful mudguards tho

Only hardtail MTBs here - wouldn't mind a full sus tandem tho as you can't stand up when peddalling so full sus would help

HT for all my mtb'ing, I had FS'ers but just enjoy HT's more, a personal thing I guess. Got road bikes for the road, ratty steel mudguarded one for my commute, and a nice plastic one for shifting it 8)