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I love both my Hardtail and F/S, I wouldn’t of wanted to be on the Hardtail yesterday in South Wales, but I’ve done a 19 mile ride to pick up an Amazon delivery from the locker at the garage around the corner, it would of be dull as you like on the Geometron, but was ace on the Bitmap.
https://strava.app.link/vSfkFaHaKgb
Would love to know where OP’s friend’s friend rides.
If I told you...
He's probably just realised hardtails are a bit crap when you're schralping more gnat than you tend to find on your average bridleway or whatever all these hardtail heroes here are riding. FS is just way more fun and the bike feels better when it's balanced and both ends are doing the same thing. Imo. Said currently as a hardtail rider due to budget - can't wait to get back on a FS bike!
This is great. I think i'm now going to say I outskilled the only FS i ever owned ... well, i mean my mechanical skills were clearly too advanced for all those bolts and nonsense under the seat. They wouldn't even stay in the right shape once i'd applied my skills.
Also, that Mavic axle. All those wheels. Clearly outskilled.
So I just bought a hardtail, does that mean i have unskilled my fs or overskilled myself?!
FS is just way more fun and the bike feels better when it’s balanced and both ends are doing the same thing.
Sounds like you need to down skill to a rigid bike. They’re the best for front and back being completely balanced.
“do you even hardtail bro”
^^ Cheers OP ,that needs to be on a T-shirt 🙂
schralping more gnat
I nominate this to go on a t-shirt.
No idea what it means but it sounds dirty.
I think it was the Gus Hedges use of 'outskilled' that made me laugh rather than the fact the fella bought himself a new bike.
It kinda makes sense from the Urban Dictionary definition
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Outskilled
Why is there always some over-sensitive, under-joyed, funsponge oddball on every thread these days saying "ooh you can't take the piss out of people who don't even read the forum!" You mustn't have a laugh about stuff with your virtual fwends... Jeez. I can't cope. Do these people want the forum to be all "What socks for tidying my bedroom in?" threads?
I can kind of see the OPs mate's point, there comes a time when you feel that a bike that's bigger/bouncier/lighter/burlier/has more gears (delete where applicable) will improve your riding.
If you were riding in the 90s remember your first taste of v brakes, or suspension forks, etc.
Then the changes in geometry over the last 10 years. Yowzers! 😆
But....I do own a full sus (tend to save it for bpw trips, etc) but having ridden a hardtail almost exclusively for many years, and for the last 12 months I've mostly ridden a rigid Stooge MK4.
My actual skill level is (imo anyway) much higher because if this. Then when I get on the full sus it feels laughably easy.
So if he wants to buy a skill 'compensator' then more power to his arm, but it won't improve his skill level any.
@ajantom well said, pretty much my "serious" view. Also what DezB said 🙂
For humour - Kayla1.
For likelihood - probably Docrobster.
for the last 12 months I’ve mostly ridden a rigid Stooge MK4.
I’ve recently built up a Dirtbomb. It’s pants shittingly frightening on some stuff but that’s my idea of fun. It compliments my style of riding - get you arse over the rear, hang on to the bars and hope for the best!
Sounds like you need to down skill to a rigid bike. They’re the best for front and back being completely balanced.
I think I do actually prefer rigid (or at least very short travel forks which are set up quite hard) to hardtail depending on the trail. I have to set up my forks quite hard to get the HT to feel a bit more normal and less "divey" - but then they are really too long for a HT. I just haven't got round to reducing the travel or getting new ones since downgrading to the hardtail frame.
Love the term "skill compensator" - should all the highly skilled, top of their game, world cup DH riders be on hardtails or fully rigids then?
Love the term “skill compensator” – should all the highly skilled, top of their game, world cup DH riders be on hardtails or fully rigids then?
I think you know exactly what I mean 😘
I'm not suggesting in any way that the highly skilled riders of DH and the Enduro World cups should ride hardtails, but if they did they'd still be considerably faster than you or I on any full-sus wonder machine we cared to choose.
My point is that Dave from down the pub may want to buy a full-sus, and I'm sure he'll love it, but I'm also 100% sure he hasn't reached the limits of his hardtail yet.
Conversely I really enjoy the challenge that comes when switching back to a hardtail from my full susser. Yep, it’s all a bit sketchy (and fun) at first, but I soon get to the point where there aren’t any of my FS lines I won’t ride on the hardtail. When I jump back on the FS I’m faster, smoother, and more adventurous in the lines I’ll tackle.
All said and done though, if I had to go down to one bike it’d be the fully that I’d keep. For those days when you wanna get out and ride but you’re not feeling like giving it full-send everywhere it’s a massive skill-compensator, and let’s me hit stuff in a manner that would have me picking bracken out of my helmet if I was as blasé on the hardtail.
jimmy’s mate’s colleague may have come out with a bullshit justification for a new bike but it’s totally shaded by the bullshit spouted in this thread 🤣