I have three bikes a full suss, hard tail and rigid.

My front susension is what I learned to ride on really and was always quite comfortable on it.

But I’ve mainly been riding on my full suss recent, I’ve got reasonable quick on it doing gorrick XC’s etc. Generally on my full suss I ride sat down occansionaly standing to attack a short climb or for very rough bits. I always use spds on my full suss.

I often take newbies riding at swinley and I ride my rigid. I do alot more standing on my rigid but still feel reasonably quick, Im quite happy to use spds or flats on this bike.

Yesterday I went to swinley on my hard tail, but I just could nt seem to ride quickly at all. On the flats and ups I reckon I was easily quicker on my rigid never mind my full suss.

Whenever I sat the bike felt uncomfortable and I wanted to stand, but whenever I stood I wanted to sit as my forks keep compressing taking my power.

Anyway in conclusion I just dont see the point of a hardtail anymore to me seem to offer the worst of both worlds. You can just sit on the bike and power through the rough stuff but equally you cant stand as the front suspension soaks up your power.

Anyway as alot of people here seem to like long travel hardtails I just wondered what you all think. Are hardtails the worst of both worlds ?

[to a certain extent Im just trying to be controversial and I think alot of my problems yesterday was to do with me using flats]

My hardtail (95mm travel 31lb jumpbike) is def slower and harder work than a full sus of the same weight but much more fun to ride. it isn’t about what’s faster or easier to ride for me.

lockout forks on a hard tail

Yesterday I went to swinley on my hard tail, but I just could nt seem to ride quickly at all

I find that at Swinley on the singletrack your weight distribution is more significant to your speed than anything else. Weight further back = better for the really windy bits. So my XC whippet machine is loads slower than my 5 there.

Although I have to disagree about the forks. How can bobbing forks rob you of power? Got nothing to do with your legs.

I dont know if I totally mean what I said above too. But yesterday I definitely found my hardtail much more tiring and slower than my rigid which I didnt excpect. I think I just need to relearn how to ride the hardtail.

Are your forks too soft?

You could have been just off-form? Lots of issue here.

I ride a hardtail with the forks permanently locked out.
I rely on the threshold/blow off/gate valve or whatever it’s called to take care of the worst hits.

I ride a hardtail with the forks permanently locked out.
I rely on the threshold/blow off/gate valve or whatever it’s called to take care of the worst hits.

I was considering doing that. Is it bad for the forks in the long term ?

Yes.. I think you’l find they cry themselves to sleep each night after being subjected to use in this manner. 😥

Don’t know. Can’t think of any reason why it should be.
There must be some sort of pressure relief valve in there, all I’m doing is using that more often while putting less wear on the moving parts.

I ride a hardtail with the forks permanently locked out.

Yeah but your a TQer, that’s the kind of weird thing that they do.

It can be bad for them depending on the design. Pace used to warn you against it but they didn’t have a blow-off.

It’s a bit pointless tbh. It’s not going to magically make you faster, it’s going to make you slower because of the vibrations. If it’s set up properly it won’t be a problem.

If you were slower on your HT then there’s something else going on as you correctly suggest above.

yeah I didnt really mean it too seriously was just a bit confused that it seemed to be easier or at least more instinctive to go from riding a full-suss straight to a rigid. And it felt rather alien to ride a hard tail which I think most of us would consider the “Standard” mountain bike.

I think sir needs to harden the fluff up and learn to ride fast without a skill compensator. Then you’ll be even quicker when/if you back to a lazy man’s bike 😉

Pace used to warn you against it but they didn’t have a blow-off.

It seems reasonable to warn you against relying on the blow off feature of a fork when the fork does not actually have this feature.

Hey Tazz,

After coming cycling with you lot in the chase a few weeks ago I know your not slow 🙂 but as I said I reckon I’m pretty quick on the fully rigid.

Anyway dont you have 29″ wheels as a skill compensator? 😛

no the 29″ wheels are the weight handicap so as not to dishearten little wheelers we take out with us too much 😆

It’s just cos you don’t like that bike. Doesn’t matter what it is, could’ve been one of the others, once you get it in your head that it’s shit, it will be.

I’ve done more miles on a rigid bike than almost any other type of bike

They are miserable on rough ground, suspension forks were just win win when I first fitted them…..

I think its very rare that a rigid is better off road (well for me)

sounds like your hard tail doesn’t suite you

18Lb Ibis Tranny is what you need with 120mm up front and lockout, Oh and of course tubeless to runn low comfy pressures.

I’ve got a rigid bike which I love riding for my off road commute but an hour on it is plenty for me these days. I’ve had a full suss as well which I went straight too after 12 years of rigid only which was a revelation in that I could ride for hours and still use my hands by the end of the ride. And now I have a hardtail which is the ideal bike for me.