[Closed] See? You CAN ride everything on a hardtail. If you're brilliant.

On a similar note

I'm out on my hardtail tonight, and I should imagine I will be riding it with similar silky smooth finesse. Yes... pretty much exactly like that. Possibly

Excellent stuff binners, I'll bring my video camera along tonight then shall I?

Well it might be a nice little earner. How much do they pay per clip on You've Been Framed?

nice pinkbike vid

it is a shame it looks wierd to be watching a hardtail in those vids, should be more hardtails in the MTB film stuff generally

I don't doubt they are brilliant riders and make it look effortless but I didn't see anything too taxing in the first vid for any capable hardtail rider.

I was thinking that... I mean, I'd be slower and more cowardly obviously, and far less interesting to watch but unless the camera lies, there's nothing in there I wouldn't happily ride on my hardtail.

I suspect there would be slightly more tree/bike interface scenes in my version of that

I'm not seeing anything in there that's more difficult than say Inners, Dalbeattie or Kirroughtree tourist routes. It's a nice trail, but not out of this world in terms of difficulty.

It's pretty, but that video is doing my head in. Why do they have to cut shots every second or so?

binners - Member

I suspect there would be slightly more tree/bike interface scenes in my version of that

That's what I was thinking too 😉

Reminds me of riding there on my Global hardtail with Shiver SC's back in the day.

Rode Rose Hill in Kamloops on it too, before they flattened it. And a lot of the 'Shore too.

The only differences are the fact you'll ride it faster on a full sus and that you need to take more breaks as you get beaten up a lot more (oh and you might not send it quite so far on the hardtail either, although maybe that was just me).

Film does tend to flatten and make things look smaller, so I'm guessing that the trails are, in reality probably it little more technical than they appear 😉

See? You CAN ride everything on a hardtail.

Where did anyone say that you couldn't btw?

Binners I presume your handle bars will be red, folks could get the wrong idea.

I'm not seeing anything in there that's more difficult than say Inners, Dalbeattie or Kirroughtree tourist routes. It's a nice trail, but not out of this world in terms of difficulty.

TROLOLOLOLOL....

This explains why so many Brits go to Whistler to ride 'XC' every year, only to take their bikes on four hour walks for two weeks 😆

4 hour walks, surely that's what chairlifts are for?

oh the XC trails, some of them are proper hardcore. and brilliant.

Two hours walking up.....and then two hours walking down.

I wish I was joking! I was an XC guide in 2007. People watch vids like this, think it looks easy and fun so come over.

I wish I was joking! I was an XC guide in 2007

You got a proper job yet? 😉

walleater - Member

People watch vids like this, think it looks easy and fun so come over.

I don't think it looks that easy, but I'm comfortable I could do it. Is that allowed ? 😉 There's a lot of stuff over there that I wouldn't say that of.

I enjoyed the vid, nice riding. I think the video did flatten stuff out, and also some of the stuff that looked effortless at speed would have been tricky / unridable going slow.

You got a proper job yet?

There's no need to rush these things is there? 😉

I enjoyed watching that.

Another vid of the same guy:

Awesome video and watching those guys ride always makes me wonder why I'm bothering riding a full sus haha. I remember following Jinya down Dirt Merchant last year and just couldn't keep up on my Bullit despite all the braking bumps. He has serious skills.

And yes the valley trails are a lot harder than they look in videos.

Indeed you can but I bet those trails are steep enough to scare me a fair bit even if I could get down them inelegantly... Jinya is awesome, I can't count the number of times I've watched "Hardtail at Whistler" (although it doesn't look as improbably amazing as it used to, so I must be getting faster!)

My mate took his bog standard Rockhopper to morzine with us, and did all the runs we did including the blacks. Granted he was pretty slow, but not that slow and he still made it down!

Given hes only been riding for a year I was impressed

Even more impressively, I was staggered that the bike actually held up, other than a disintgrating wheel half way down the canyon in les getz..

Thanks for posting that.. great vid. That guy has skills. A bit like watching Kranked 2 all over again - it looks do-able but in reality it's only cos he's riding so damn well. The second vid realman posted, you can see how exact he is with his lines. Knows the run backwards. I'd be bounced off-line and off the track in no time )

nice vids and trails. HT riding looks a lot more rad and stylish to my eyes.

This film is a bit home video of some Danish xc lads but at 3mins they are doing some pretty big gaps and jumps with saddle well, xc styles. Most stuff I try to tell myself is all in the mind, unfortunately my mind is too old a worried ..

Both vids overshadowed for me by the decision to replace the sounds of the trail with muzaac a la Top Gear. Shame.

Love those videos, the Hardtail In Whistler is a classic and a good riposte to people who say long forked hardtails arent good for anything....they are fun bikes, pure and simple....they'll never be as fast across country as a dedicated XC bike and they'll never be as fast downhill as a FS-DH machine but they are simple easy to maintain and loads of fun, surely thats what its about?

Enjoyed the first vid very much:

LoCo - Member

Film does tend to flatten and make things look smaller, so I'm guessing that the trails are, in reality probably it little more technical than they appear

+1
Some of the speed over obstacles and into corners was double your average decent rider speed. Admittedly they probably sessioned the same bits again and again, but still. Looking good on video takes a lot of skill full stop.

Love those videos, the Hardtail In Whistler is a classic and a good riposte to people who say long forked hardtails arent good for anything....they are fun bikes, pure and simple....they'll never be as fast across country as a dedicated XC bike and they'll never be as fast downhill as a FS-DH machine

Long forks on hardtails are gash

add "never flow, turn, pump or jump as well as a short travel 4X/DJ hardtail" to your list too.

9, Tell us about your bike/s?
Chromag prototype frame with Rockshox lyrik soloair lowered to 150mm

That's a long fork.

http://www.hardtailnation.co.uk/2010/12/who-are-you-13/

Edit: And here he is riding his long-forked hardtail.

[img] [/img]

Long forks on hardtails are gash

This

The vid of the danish xc guys is mental!

HaHaHa at all the STW dads that reckon that they could ride those particular trails in Whistler and Pemberton on a hardtail. There are a couple of big committment lines in there that they make look easy. Ive not ridden with Jinya but I have ridden with Phelps and he is a real animal with mad skills, if he is riding that trail its going to be the gnarliest line around. He use to race Psychosis DH in Golden every year on his hardtail, check out the videos of how steep that is.

I don't doubt they are brilliant riders and make it look effortless but I didn't see anything too taxing in the first vid for any capable hardtail rider.

+1

GW, be quiet.

"Chromag prototype frame with Rockshox lyrik soloair lowered to 150mm [b] and set up stiff so as not to use all 150mm and ruin the handling[/b]"

😉

At 1:30-ish in this video you can see him getting most of the travel out of them. We can argue about how much exactly if you like, what else is there to do on a sunny Friday? 😉

Great riding, but I have to agree, long forks on a hardtail arent so nice. They also tend to turn the riders into mincers.

Last time I was up glentress there was some muppet (he was wearing oakley sun glasses in the bike park) on a long forked cotic, he couldnt even clear all the table tops! What a mong. Then he tried to ride the skinny sections and had to jump off halfway along.

Thought about trying to give him some advice but he was to busy trying to look cool.

Thought about trying to give him some advice but he was to busy trying to look cool.

What's wrong with that ?

he was wearing oakley sun glasses in the bike park

Flipping heck. What a total noob! i would have punched him there and then.

davidtaylforth - Member

Last time I was up glentress there was some muppet (he was wearing oakley sun glasses in the bike park) on a long forked cotic, he couldnt even clear all the table tops! What a mong. Then he tried to ride the skinny sections and had to jump off halfway along.

Yeah, you're right, he should give his bike up and take up backgammon instead 😆

I don't think that riding looked *easy* its just that it didn't feature the rentless fast rocky bits where an advantage would usually be gained from a full-sus. It was hard, but not because you 'needed' a full-sus.

On a personal note, its the faituge that gets me on the hardtail. Not so much of a problem in the uk, more on the long aline descents. It can be ridden nearly as fast, but its much more tiring mentally and physically to do so. You can't make mistakes or let up concentration for a second.

Hmmm. Who's correct here; Jinya (with all of the global attention he's getting for his frankly amazing riding skills) or GW. Let me think...........

Neither is "correct". Some people just don't like long forked hardtails, some do. The only thing you can do wrong, is ride a bike that doesn't work for you.

Some people just don't like long forked hardtails, some do.

Long forks on hardtails are gash

If you can't stand people having opinions, then maybe. (or, if you can't spot a statement of opinion unless it's got IMO written after it)

That's a statement, not an opinion.

Not mutually exclusive.

Long forks on hardtails are gash

is incorrect then?

Nope; it is very much correct.

Nope; it is very much correct.

Jinya's choice of bike and fork length works for him and the riding he does, he should know....he spends all summer in Whistler, i'm sure he's played around with fork lengths and settled on what works where he rides.

For the average STW rider at Swinley on a hardtail then shorter travel is probably best.

Hmmm. Who's correct here; Jinya (with all of the global attention he's getting for his frankly amazing riding skills) or GW. Let me think...........

Maybe if more brands offered 36mm / 20mm axle chassis shorter forks and frames with good angles for DH with 100-120mm forks we'd see less LT HTs under riders of that skill level? Maybe not. Each to their own / ride what ya like, but I agree with the basic idea that too much imbalance in a bike feels crap. 150mm of active movement adds nothing over a shorter fork plus cornering, drops, steep steppy stuff, flow/hops etc are all compromised by too much movement up front. Best DH hardtail I owned was a L size jump/xc x-over frame with good angles, 110mm fork and hi-rise bars. I've had 150mm HTs and they were fun, but didn't encourage the good riding practice and speed the shorter-travel bike did. Just became a handful when it got really rough - the rear end and my skill level are the limiters, not the forks. 40mm travel's not that much, but it feels like the difference between a good hardtail and a wierd one to many.

So I have a dialled Alpine with 150 Revs on it which I ride with 25% slags. Tell me what I am doing wrong? I ride it on the local XC and DH tracks. rocky, smooth, rocky, northshore. I can ride whatever I ride on my Alpine that I ride on my Full suss but sometimes try things out on the full suss as a crutch to try out new drops/jumps etc to get a safer understanding of the speed and line choice. Am I still allowed to ride it with the setup I have or do I have to lower the travel? I know I can as I have the spacers but couldn't be bothered so far.

Jinya's bars are on the wide size!! Do I have to change these as well? I know that they would prove an issue on some of my trails as they are already quite tight.

How wide are Jinya's bars?

I'm sure if these guys riding these DH trails on hardtails wanted short forks then they could get a frame knocked up with the right angles, given that Jinya works for Chromag i reckon he (or they) may have considered the shorter fork/slack angles option....and yet strangely they havent done this....maybe, just maybe they want a decent amount of shock absorbing travel on the front.

Would be interested to know if Jinya rides clipped in or not...

GEDA- Each to their own / ride what ya like imo, but I bet you could ride everything you ride on the Alpine (possibly smoother / easier) with less travel if the sagged angles and ride position were the same. Not saying anyone should, just a few people questioning the logic of LT HTs and not for the first time. But I ride a rigid bike, not much logic in that either.. )

Would be interested to know if Jinya rides clipped in or not.

He has those pedals which are spds on one side and flat on the other side. Just so he has the best of both worlds like.

Only I can say whether it's my opinion or not wrecker

..oh.. and HTF are you "listening to this "ninja" bloke anyway?

Only I can say whether it's my opinion or not wrecker

I don't even ride one but I can't stand people telling others that their bikes are crap or that they should be riding X or Y. Just do whatever you like. Ride whatever you want to ride. If you're having fun then you're doing it correctly.

This thread started off so well as well..

It's obvious to anyone without learning difficulties that my statement is my opinion.

Only I can say whether it's my opinion or not wrecker

It's obvious to anyone without learning difficulties that my statement is my opinion.

Are you saying you're the only person on the planet who doesn't have learning difficulties?

🙄

[img] [/img]

😀

I think my point was with the video of the Danish XC boys was equipment is totally secondary to your mindset and skills. They are doing gaps and drops with no thought of the unsuitability of their bikes. Ahh... but they are not long travel hardtails.

It's obvious to anyone without learning difficulties that my statement is my opinion.

Nice one. Talk about reinforcing [i]opinions[/i] eh?

How wide are his bars? real question.

+1 for laughing at the folk who reckon those trails will be like trails centre Scotland. It's another world in BC in terms of gradings and standards. UK black runs are family play runs over the pond. That Pemby trail would be off the scale over here.

I have a dialled Alpine with 150 Revs on it which I ride with 25% slags.

😯

The LT hardtail thing has been done to death, but they've been around for over a decade now and aren't going away.

Funny how the same debate doesn't seem to come up when long travel full sussers are discussed, surely any changes to head angle are going to be even more pronounced if the back end of the bike goes up when it's unweighted?

Last time I checked my legs were a lot longer than my arms, a lot stronger than my arms, and not as involved with the more complicated business of braking and steering and so on, thus leaving them capable of providing plenty of effective rear wheel suspension travel.

[url=

I spent Friday sessioning the new DH run at the FOD, on my Whyte 901. in retrospect I don't have the skills to pull this off, and now have a thumb which looks like a big blue sausage! The lesson? if you can pull it off you look rad and can wear a smug look on your face as you pass everyone else, but if your not you just look like a knob (as I did).

I spent Friday sessioning the new DH run at the FOD, on my Whyte 901. in retrospect I don't have the skills to pull this off, and now have a thumb which looks like a big blue sausage! The lesson? if you can pull it off you look rad and can wear a smug look on your face as you pass everyone else, but if your not you just look like a knob (as I did).

Well, at least you looked like a knob on a modest hardtail rather than a knob on an expensive 160mm AM trail bike.

GW what travel for optimum HT performance? I love my HT and use it for most riding but 90mm has got me into trouble a few times 🙁 Praps I need more skillz

Those are all pretty smooth trails though, relatively speaking.

Excellent, thanks.

On a slightly separate note - does anybody know the name of the band/track that accompanies the vid?

Cheers.