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

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.

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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.

^^^^ Found it - on the off chance anyone else was interested.

‘Maribel’ Jezebel Jive (Keep Shelly In Athens Remix)