A while back I’d decided that full sus was the way to go though I am finding myself looking at hardtails again. My Horsetheif climbed great was faster than me downhill but was not exactly chuckable or fun so I have had a Reign with 27.5 which whilst more agile and still quick, great at techy stuff hasn’t exactly met the ‘fun’ bit. So has anyone else traded in the full sus for a hardtail? Do you swap about as the mood takes or have both? Its possibly(likely) just a want for a new bike 😳

Or even has anyone thought they wanted a hardtail and regretted getting one?

I recently sold the two full suspension bikes I had , now have three hardtail bikes.

One is a fat ebike, another is the Vir Fortis carbon fat bike and recently built up a Chromag Wideangle.

Whilst the full suss offered me more comfort, I felt I was a bit of a passenger on the full suss.

I’m slower on the hardtail, but genuinely prefer the bikes with less complexity.

Fits my style of riding now.
Not that concerned about trying to ride that fast, not concerned about riding anything which is a bit beyond me technically.

I like the hardtails, but can see that it’s more a frame of mind thing for me.

I guess everyone is different but I dumped the full suss ages ago now and haven’t regretted it in the slightest.

Went long travel HT about 4 years ago and love every bit of it.

I got bored with just throwing it down anything and just being a bit of a passenger, so i wanted to go back to a HT and ride where I had to pick my lines better and actually use skill to get through things rathe than just hold on and let the suspension deal with it all.

I have both. I probably ride the hardtail more often as it makes most of my local stuff more fun/ challenging and it’s cheaper to maintain. I do like having a FS for trips to other rockier places though. Sometimes it’s a mood thing.

Fat bike hardtail gives a little more comfort for me, especially the Vir Fortis.

Not full suspension type comfort, but the carbon frame and 4″ tyres do make for a forgiving ride.

Looking forward to a bit of snow this winter.

Both. Definitely both. Got a trailsy 29er hardtail and will completing the build on 26/27.5 schralpenwagen this afternoon. Would like a nippy xc 29 full sus too but pennies won’t allow

The hardtail is really truly amazeballs

Had an enduro bike for a while. If i was off the boil with fitness I didn’t enjoy dragging it round trail centers or on more XC riding. But it’s a hoot on the tech descents and when I’m fitter it’s fine. Although at trail centers it tames most of the riding down a lot, maybe I need to go to faster I dunno.

Anyways i built up a 29er ht and was super apprehensive of getting on it and being absolutely terrible at riding and hating it.

First ride I was amazed at how much it was capable of and it actually brought home to me that actually it was me that was capable and the bike made only a small difference. Unless the terrain was particularly steep and lumpy.

I also got a HT to try and reduce the amount of wear and tear on my enduro rig over winter. Specifically bearings and shocks.

Anyways I am now a fully fledged ht rider, love them both. Could probably do away with the enduro sled but i like it.

Whats the schralpenwagen?

Saracen 15x but I can’t afford new wheels at the mo so its got 26ers on.

Hardtail is an Onza payoff. Loads of this type of 29er about at the minute and with good reason I think

I’ve had a few FSs over the last couple of years alongside a long travel HT and didn’t really get on with them although I do currently have a real hankering for a Cotic Flare. I’m trying to weather the ‘want’ storm to get through the other side without splashing the cash because I know I’ll end up going back to my hardtail in a month or so and taking a huge bath on the price of a new frame. I’m faster on a FS, I know I am, but I always end up thinking that whatever I’ve just ridden on a FS would have been more ‘fun’ (read: slower and sketchier 😆 ) on a HT.

I name is metalheart and I was a serial FS swapper…

Never found a FS I was truly happy with until the Rocket. However that coincided with a period when I wasn’t really riding much so I sold it (and used the cash as part deposit on a new motorcycle).

I had a 29er and 26″ (also Cotic) hardtails which met my requirements. I recently bought a B+ hardtail….

I too have a hankering after a FlareMAX… 😳

But really my hardtails are enough for my needs & requirements.

Whats the schralpenwagen?

I’d prefer a schlampenwagen.

I bought a Parkwood 8 weeks ago…. I love it…

I bought a Whyte T130 2 weeks later…

I’ve not sat on the Parkwood in 6 weeks… i think it’s still where i left it… but i’ve not checked.

Interesting one this.

When I started MTBing I had a hardtail and lusted for an FS. When I got an FS, still relatively inexperienced, I found it really helped with my trail riding, but realised after a couple of years t was doing alot of the work for me and bought a hardtail to run single speed in parallel with the FS to use in the winter to ‘save’ my FS from excessive wear.

At this point with a few more years experience I began to realise that a hardtail demanded more skill and pushed me to become a better rider and the FS began to get held back for the harder days only.

Move forward a good few years more, throw 29ers into the mix and I find myself in a position where my 29er hardtail increasingly pushes out the FS in all but the most lairy places like the lakes, Snowdonia, and Spain.

Dartmoor, Qauntocks, Exmoor, peaks, afan, FOD, Mendips, they’re all more rewarding to ride on my hardtail. The FS is just so, ridiculously, unbelievably competent, it makes these places not quite challenging enough.

I thought I wanted to go back to a hardtail. Then I borrowed one and that put paid to that silly notion. I’m a little bit slower up hill on the FS, but much much faster downhill on anything but a perfectly smooth trail – and where’s the fun in a smooth trail?

and where’s the fun in a smooth trail?

That’s exactly what an FS does. Smooths the trail.

From my perspective, what it does is push up the severity of the trail in order to get the reward. For me in the south west, it dulls the fun in too many places.

i have the luxury of having both.

neither are particularly expensive which facilitates having both.

the most fun weapon i`ve had was a 4″ commencal. which was rad, not really forgiving but fast as hell. i snapped that though. I got a 4″ giant trance after and then a boardman after that but they were just shit so i went full Enduro with an empire MX6evo frame second hand which is much radness but not for ‘XC’

my HT is a crappy, uncared-for, battered-to-hell, not bling, out of date cannondale trail SL. which is actually suprisingly good. ive tried other HTs but i keep going back to this cheap and nasty one.

i ride the HT more. ( i ride the same stuff on both) that said i live on teh south downs where there are few properly full suss worthy trails.

so it just goes to show the frame matters more than the full suss bit i think or maybe i`ve just lost my train of though?

I tried an FS once

it was weird

I had hardtails for years mainly for xc duties but hankered after a good quality, light full suss. Finally, 3 years ago, I went full suss – a Scott Spark 26″ wheel bargain (so not massively sussey).
Recently I bought into the dropper post phenomenon and realised that one of the things I didn’t like about my (sadly sold) hardtails was the inability to get the seat out of the way in unexpected situations. Am now toying with the idea of a long travel hardtail with a dropper….
n+1, obvs.

I have literally just moved from a Anthem 29er to a carbon 650b XTC hardtail. Ok so not such a big change as both are XC rockets.

Three things struck me

1. Push the pedal and the XTC leaps forward, instantly. It feels alive and agile.
2. The back end bucks on the XTC when powering up rocky climbs, very noticeably compared to the short travel Anthem. Lots more feathering the power required on the XTC compared to amshing the pedals on the Anthem
3. Some trails feel best on the Anthem others on the XTC and not always how you would imagine. Ashton Court feels better on the Anthem than the XTC, which surprised me as its hardly technical.

But overall having a new bike outweighs the pro and cons of either. A new bike just makes you smile. I’m riding the same trails at pretty much the same overall speed but I’m smiling cos I got a new bike 🙂

I have both but find I just use the FS on the rare occasions I race, it’s coming on for two years old but looks brand new!

The HTs I’ve had in recent years (456-evo, Ragley Piglet, 45650b, Dialled Alpine) have just been too much fun, I’m now into Aluminium and have a Dartmoor Hornet, with air Revs, carbon bars, Pacenti wheels and a 1×10 setup it is light and hardcore in a different way to the steel HTs.
I choose it pretty much every time I ride, recently that’s been BPW and Antur, the HT won’t hold you back, only your own abilities will and it makes the blue runs at these places far more enjoyable.

Maintenance is virtually non existent, I’ll give up the FS before I get rid of the HT.

I’ll provide the opposing view then – have tried twice to get on with hardtails (good ones too, with quality spec) and just hated the unbalanced feeling of having suspension at one end but not the other. I’ve never not had fun riding my FS (170/150) regardless of the trail level, so sold them pretty sharpish and don’t think I’ll bother again.

I have a fully rigid SS too btw, which I love, and ride just as much as the FS – before anyone suggests I can’t ride without suspension! 😉

In an ideal world I’d have both, but I don’t do enough off roading to warrant it, or to wear out a full suss.

With the faff I’ve had with the Bossnut I’ve been tempted to go back to a hardtail full time, but then I think about the miserable time I had in Scotland the last 2 years and decide against it.

That said, there’s a couple of nice Whyte 90summats within budget.

So has anyone else traded in the full sus for a hardtail? Do you swap about as the mood takes or have both?

I ran a Five and a Brodie Holeshot alongside each other for a while, and ended up selling the Five because I was riding the Holeshot a lot more. I always figured I’d get a bigger travel bike for using in bigger hills, but then parenthood happened.

As it happens I run a custom steel (semi-fat / 29 depending on conditions) bike alongside a Bird Aeris now, and am riding the hardtail a lot more locally.

I have both, I like both but the ageing body can take a battering on the BFe over a full day. I usually decide which to ride depending on the mood as much as where I am riding. If you told me I really could have only one bike it would be the BFe (or other HT).

Best ride this year, the Annat descent on the BFe. Worst hauling/wrestling the Banshee up to the top of Bealach na Lice (from Coulags) followed by Coire Grannda wishing I was on the rather more portable BFe.

That’s exactly what an FS does. Smooths the trail.

From my perspective, what it does is push up the severity of the trail in order to get the reward. For me in the south west, it dulls the fun in too many places.

Thanks for putting what’s in my head into words! 😀 We’re in County Durham, so not mountainous or gnarly at all and we can’t be arsed to drive to ride our bikes anywhere that’d ‘need’ a big FS.

I suppose 15-odd years of riding rubbish bikes, some with really shitty elastomer forks (OE Rockshox Indys anyone? 😯 ), means I can’t get my head around the lack of sketch from the back on a modern FS so they feel a bit odd and I can’t bring myself to trust the back to follow the front so I still end up choosing hardtail lines through stuff anyway 😆

I have both, but I’m getting the urge to sell my 2016 mega and build another hardtail, I only ride Stanton though, I currently have an 853 Sherpa 29’er, and have also had a ti slackline, and a ti mk2 switchback, the mega is a fantastic bike, but I do feel like it makes all the stuff I ride a bit boring, it sanitises everything, with the hardtail, I’ve got to think a lot more, it’s a lot more involving, the nuke just sits in the shed most of the time! Also the Sherpa is a super comfy thing, can ride all day long, climbs superbly, and descends like an absolute demon!

Its a mute point these days, as there are hardtails for all sorts.
You would have to prise my plus wheeled Niner from my cold, dead hands.

I have four hardtails and one full suspension. The four hardtails consists of three 29nrs and one 29nr+.
The 29nr+ is my go to bike.I can ride it locally as quickly as the full bouncer. Quite a few of my riding buddies ride fat bikes and we all feel that other than big drop offs and rock gardens
,Fatties tick allthe boxes. Each to their own

Back end of 2008 I bought my FS, a Pitch Pro. Loved it, sold my Trailstar.
Could of years later built a SS HT, the Pitch sat pretty much unused after that.

Sold the Pitch frame a couple years ago and have ridden HTs exclusively since.

I just accept that I won’t always keep up with mates on FS bikes. I prefer HTs though, just a bit simpler, more involvement.

I ride the Lakes 99% of the time too.

I’ve alternated between FS & HT bikes – nothing like not making up your mind is there? 🙄 Currently both MTBs are rigid: a Cotic Solaris that used to have a suspension fork and a Singular Puffin fat bike. The only terrain I’ve ridden on the Solaris (in HT mode) where I thought the bike was struggling rather than me was in the Alps (it was a bit beyond me as well TBH).

Most if not all of my riding is traditional XC terrain, for that a HT or rigid bike is more than enough. It’s taken a while to get the setup right for long distances so the “benefit” of FS isn’t needed.

I can see what idiotdogbrain is saying about HTs and I think it comes from folk putting long travel forks on them, 80-100mm is probably enough otherwise you are going to get that diving forward feeling.

Where as I really rated my 456 (140 Revs) the head angle changes were quite noticeable.

I’ve just gone from 100mm Reba’s to 120mm Pikes on my Solaris and it feels great.

That’s a good point, I had a Dialled ALpine with 150’s and whilst good in some situations, in the ones where you wanted the big fork to work the geo change was disconcerting. I do have a V2 Scandal frame in the garage……might be worth a resurrection.

I change bikes a lot, wether it’s an itch or just can’t find one that ‘feels’ right.
Few years back I moved from a hardtail to an Anthem and was good, but felt it wasn’t enough so went to a Orange five, few months later to an alpine 160.
Was good but too much for the South Downs and our local trails, so sold that for a Gambler (just for some DH duties) and dug out my rigid ’96 lava dome.
Was great to go back to roots and being pin balled around did have us all in hysterics.
For the type of riding it was sometimes a struggle so decided again to change.
Gambler is going this weekend and leaning towards a Privee Shan.
I had a blast on my brothers Chromag stylus with 160’s up front and felt amazing.

As tempting as full sus is again for local rides, I like the slack hardtail route.
After riding the rigid kona, it’s made me realise a hardtail will be ideal for me personally locally.
Oh to have enough money to use the N+1 equation.

I’m an old skool MTB’er from way back when. Like a lot of people, I kind of stopped riding for 20 odd years while I did family,cars,work etc. The manufacturers were just starting to experiment with full suspension back then (Proflex, Trek 9000, etc.) but they were prohibitively expensive for me back then.

Fast forward 20 odd years… about 2 years ago, I noticed that middle aged spread had kind of crept up on me, so I dragged out my old 2003 Dawes Tamarak DX ally hardtail and hit the trails for the first time in two decades… I even joined the local MTB club.

The Dawes was surprisingly competent for an old fart, but still I saw the range of more modern machinery that my fellow club members were riding and I knew the Dawes was dated with old/worn components. Rather than try to update it with modern components, I thought it would be better to just buy a new bike. So I ended up with a full suspension 2015 Kona Precept 🙂

Now I love the Precept… Kona kind of pitched it as a trail/enduro hybrid at the time… I guess it would class as a short travel trail bike now. Point is, I love my Kona… they kind of threw most of the money at the frame with the premise you would upgrade the components as they wore out, which is precisely what I did. It’s a fantastic ride… just bulldozers over anything in its path with very little effort. However, hill climbing is not its forte… it will go up hills obviously, but its hard work and feels slow even in comparison to the Dawes.

So to complement the Kona (note: complement, not replace), I now have a Felt Nine 30 29’er XC hardtail. With the exception of the big wheels, it’s a lot closer to the bikes I rode back in the late 80’s/early 90’s… I daresay I feel more at home on it… it’s my go-to bike for local XC, club rides, etc. or if I just want to cover a lot of ground quickly with not much effort. However if I’m going FOD or similar… I take the Kona.

So to finally answer your question… I ride both dependent on where/what I’m riding, or as the mood takes me. Horses for courses 🙂

Just gone back to a hardtail as my main ride, being winter n all, and loving it. Just throw it in the van and go. So simple and to the point.

Two years ago went back to a hardtail (from having two full-sussers) for a change. It’s now my only bike and I love it way more than I thought I would. For now I can’t see myself going back to a FS and am starting to think about my next hardtail purchase. Yet to come across a section of trail that makes me wish I had a FS.

I occasionally ride with the Old Gits group featured in the subscribers version of Edition 109 of Singletrack…..I’m not really sure I should have confessed to that! Anyway there’s a wide variety of riders and bikes. One of the guys is particularly opinionated and likes to “share” his opinions during the rides. On a recent ride he was holding forth on how a hardtail was all you needed and why FSers are unnecessary, rubbish etc. After about 15 minutes of this one of the other guys turned around and asked him, if he’d buy a car, motorbike or moped which only had suspension at the front………he shut up…..job done.

I’ll be building up a new hardtail next year think. Good to have 2 useable bikes and I like the variety.