hi i cannot decide on full sus or hardtail.have a grand to spend. the arguments are;
i live in east anglia,ie this area is mainly flat but theres nothing to say i cant go further afield at the weekends.

i damaged my right knee years ago and it isnt as strong as id like.i commute four miles a day no probs as its smooth going but bumps and jarrs at speed might not be so easily taken as i cannot rely on both my knees as my sole source of suspention.but then i think really large tyres go a long way to soak up the small stuff.bottom line is ill never be taking five foot drop offs due to this and the fact we dont have any round here!

i feel it has to be full sus but i dont want to find myself bobbing along like crazy on a long flat trail wearing myself out and feeling seasick on a bike with a rubber rear end if you get what i mean.on the other hand some times i take a kerb at speed on my hybrid commuter mtb and the back end bucks like an angry donkey and leaps in the air.it might not be hilly round hear but that doesnt mean to say theres no poy holes,rocks steps and roots etc.

What do people recommend? the knee is my real problem otherwise id start on a hardtail????

without knowing the nature of your knee problem its difficult to say.
try a hardtail off-road first.

its not too bad and i doo most things.damaged the cartilage and had keyhole to remove some tiny bits and tidyed it up inside.i can ride fine but monster hill climbs wouldnt be good.i can do hills but i have to get right up in the low gears and spin like crazy.theres fore i recon if i had sus on the rear end it would be more forgiving if a drop off is bigger than anticipated etc.

why would you recommend a hardtail first?

If you ‘take a curb at speed’ on your commuter, i’m not surprised it bucks and leaps into the air! Learn to bunnyhop on a hardtail, sized properly for you by people that know what they are doing, either experienced bike friends or a bike shop. Knee problems will probably not be helped much by a full susser, more by correct riding position, spd/flat position, saddle height etc.

I’ve got a similar problem- I severed the quad 21 years ago falling through a window and complications following surgery meant there’s no strength in my right knee- I can’t do a straight leg raise, and my right leg won’t support my bodyweight unlessif it’s locked straight.

I’ve found three main problems mountainbiking (aside from the overall lack of leg strength)- firstly I can’t pedal out of the saddle for more than about 50 turns of the cranks, and then only on steep climbs/high resistance sections- eg deep mud, and secondly, that if I’m freewheeling that I don’t naturally keep the cranks level- the natural position is with my good leg at the bottom of the stroke. Thirdly, and the biggy, is lower back pain casued by spending too much time seated.

I was riding alloy hardtails back then, and did for a long time afterwards, but moved to Specialized bikes a few years back when the vogue grew for enduro type riding and my back started to really kill me- age catching up I guess. The 4 bar suspension seems to suit the sitting and spinning style that I need to indulge- something like an Epic with it’s more hardail like behaviour might be better than a stumpjumper which isolates you from the trail a bit much when the going is smooth, and I had few pedal strike issues due to the difficulty of keeping the cranks level.

Having said all that, I bought a ti456 last year, and that seems to be the best solution I’ve found yet- a relatively flexy seatpost, largish tyres and a compliant frame have been a bit of a revelation.

BTW you wont get seasick or worn out on a modern FS system/shock – quite the opposite.

Knee problems will probably not be helped much by a full susser, more by correct riding position, spd/flat position, saddle height etc.

manonsoul, I think the problem is not so much aggravation of an existing injury as an inability to use the leg as shock absorbtion- certainly that’s my worst problem, and it kills my back.

I’m in a similar position with wrist problem. I keep changing my mind about what to do.

Basicall I think you need to demo a FS bike. I road for 3 hours, longer than usual for me, but pain free. Well the wrist was fine but everything else hurt, which is good. I’d like to try a giant anthem, which has abit less travel and be a bit more sporty on Bedforshire single track

I road a FSR expert on an evans “ride it” demo. You could try the same. dates here

ride it

although the dates closer to you seem to have gone

Finally the down side of FS is that you can end up with funny seat angles (like the fsr I road, with the seat right up you are mile behind the bottom bracket) also if your heels are turned in they can catch on the the swing arm etc.

A soft-tail??

FWIW, I had about 2/3 of the (medial? – inside, anyway) meniscus removed some years ago after tearing it. Was great for ages, but snowboarding lessons – hard boots 🙁 – and unicycling has made it worse (actually both knees to a degree). I avoid running (apart for the train!), do squats very carefully, it’s really anything that twists the joint ain’t good..took me a while to realise the spiral staircase at work wasn’t helping..

However, a hardtail’s fine for me – realistically you’ll probably rarely ride a trail that’s got lots of big dropoffs/landings, and anything smaller, you don’t need the knees flexing through large angles I’d have thought – unless keeping a flexed knee on a long descent is a problem in itself.

But how your knee reacts to that sort of stuff could be completely different.

Full-sus now and hardtail later ?
😉

jond youve had a simular experience and op to me.

“However, a hardtail’s fine for me – realistically you’ll probably rarely ride a trail that’s got lots of big dropoffs/landings, and anything smaller, you don’t need the knees flexing through large angles I’d have thought – unless keeping a flexed knee on a long descent is a problem in itself.”

you are right in saying the drop off’s will be rare around my way but keeping my knees flexed probably is closer to the problem.locked straight is fine and bend for a while is fine. im thinking more of riding through and over rough terrain seated would be far more comfy on a full sus but its an interesting point others have raised about the seat position being further back in some bikes.can anyone explain or expand on this as it would again be painfull for long times? i ride fine in my bum up high and head forward and low so i can get my legs out straight and power along (in the ideal world)

any body else have anything to add.
would you say a hard tail tends to bonce and buck a lot from the rear or can a good rider keep a lot of that at bay?

Having just ridden my hardtail instead of my FS around Innerleithen and GT, I’d say there is little in it really. HT is ridden more on the front forks, so you end up using hands and arms more, FS is a bit more weight back, so you go quicker over the rough stuff, but use more leg.

I have had keyhole on my left knee twice and my right once. Riding the full suss vs hardtail makes little difference to them, the main point I see is that I can ride for longer on the full suss with less back pain. Despite being pretty fit I can still overdo it and get niggling knee pain on either bike – I rode Dumayat near Stirling wed night, was sore thu, and then GT on Sat and have an achy left knee at the moment – both rides on full suss.