I am thinking about a new bike and having only ever ridden a hardtail thinking about a FS but do they require more maintenance, fettling etc?

There will be more to look after but a lot depends what type of FS you get.

What are you looking at?

A giant anthem x.

I don’t find my Orange 5 to require anymore maintenance but it is about as crude and simple as a full susser can get. In fact I find maintenance to be even less as all the hardtails I’ve had didn’t have full cable outers.

As long as the shock is pretty much protected the modern fox units are maintenance free…

I guess overall yes they will require more fettling, but Had my Giant NRS for 3 years now, rode it very hard, and never replaced suspension bearings/bushes etc… Still runs like a dream.

If you don’t look after your bikes, then yes there will be problems, but as long as you clean, maintain then you’ll be fine, well i was 🙂

Other than occasional regreasing and replacing of bearings I reckon theres about as much as you would(/should) an air fork.
A silly amount of riders I see (usually when I’ve been to trail centres) have obviously not paid any attention whatsoever to them, running 75% or so sag (instead of 20-30%) having spent thousands.

When I got my full-suss frame, it did take me a while to work out what air pressure and rebound settings worked best. The main thing was setting up the fork and rear suspension to work together well.
The fork needs to be setup properly stop it diving and the back end kicking up (trapdooring) when touching the brakes. On my HT I could get away with running the fork soft without a problem. Similarly the rear end can’t be too soft, else uphill it sits too far backward as it sits into the travel. The guidelines/pressures and a little playing with (trying it a bit harder than you might think as well) should be all you need though.

They do need extra maintenance due to pivots, shock and bushings which you can limit to some extent with a single pivot design. They do suffer more in winter though which i’ve really noticed this year as my HT has been poorly. Not all FS related but in the past 2 weeks i’ve had to fit a new BB, shock bushes, freehub, snapped spoke and service the fork. Thankfully i built my HT back up last night and will be out tonight to test it out.

As said, for minimal maintenance go single pivot. Linkage bearings mean more careful cleaning.
The rest is pretty obvious, the more complicated something gets the more there is to go wrong.

more maintenance but not excessively so …. not enough to put you off anyway.

IME you still have to replace things like shock bushes on a regular basis with a single pivot (unless Orange are different to the SP bikes I’ve owned?) It’s not a major nightmare, but still more work than with a hardtail like for like.

Will…I’m amazed by that…ridden hard for 3 yrs and no bearings /bushes needing replacement? I have to question whether you know what to look for as I have quite a bit of experience with the NRS linkages and never seen them last that long however you maintain them ,even with upgrade kits.

I think Giant suspension pivots have a reputation for being are a bit more robust than most. Good job because the Maestro system has loads.

This last year my Inbred has spent quite a bit longer laid up in the shed requiring fixing than my 5-spot; the suspension does need a bit of fettling occasionally but much less than gears, brakes, forks, wheels and whatnot do anyway.

The Orange bearings are meaty and well covered – mine’s immaculate at 1 year old and it’s seen plenty of action…

With my Santa Cruz Superlight, it’s needed a new shock bush (£5 and 10 minutes) about every 9 months and I’m expecting the main pivot bearing to last a couple of years (20 months so far).

The Stumpjumper FSR was a LOT more than that though. Shock bushes every couple of rides and new bearings about every couple of months. There was something wrong with that though.

I spend maybe half an hour setting up the shock properly, riding round, adjusting, riding round again etc. The I just leave it and check the sag every few rides. Doesn’t take any more time though. Maybe get the shock serviced every 12-18 months. About £80 for a service.

FS bikes take a bit longer to wash as well, more nooks and crannies to hold mud.

I have a stumpy 120. I’ve had to have the shock bush done about 3 times in the last 4 years. This is cheap and easy to do. All the other pivots are running really nicely. I ride this bike in all the cr4p all through the winter too. Yes, it’s more maintenance than an HT, but as a proportion of total bike fettling time it’s really minimal.