Hardtail riders, do you get less battered over time?

I took my Marley to Antur Stiniog yesterday. Great fun, but I was getting some serious arm pump by the end of the day, and today I’m aching all over.

For those who ride hardtails regularly, do you become accustomed to the increased bartering over time?

No, as you get older it exacerbates the length of time it takes to recover from a ride.

Nope, as much as I love my hardtail bike, and enjoy riding it… compared to the same ride on my fs, your body lets you know!

Nope,  you always get a kicking.  Increased skill can make the riding smoother but compared to a fs it will always hurt more

If you don’t ride bikes with suspension you don’t really get battered at all. If I ride a bike with rear suspension, I notice that the hard tail is less plush but soon aclimatise to hardtails again.

For those who ride hardtails regularly, do you become accustomed to the increased bartering over time?

Usually takes a couple of rides for me to dial the rear suspension in.

Mostly for me being much more careful where I brake has the biggest effect.

I’d say that yes, you do get battered less as you grow accustomed to the bike and how to ride it better. Ridden regularly, you’re likely to get physically stronger too, better able to absorb the trail.  Good core strength is the best thing to add to the party.

Getting older hasn’t slowed me down as yet; I mostly ride hardtail and am now officially an old geezer of 60.  I only use the FS for the biggest mountain days and hardtail most of the time.

+1 on time, skills and familiarity means you do get less battered.
It also depends on the trail. So many modern trails are built with suspension in mind now IMO. Whereas older, more natural trails, smoother/flowy trails, I don’t feel it as much.
Also, is your HT set up with as good forks and bars and grips and tyres as your FS? This makes a huge difference.

I’d say so. Felt beaten up after the first ride on my latest ht but not really noticed since. 2.6 tyres help!

Maybe a bit, but I haven’t ridden a full suspension for many years, so can’t compare it to anything.

I do find I get more battered on my fully rigid bike compared to my hardtail though 🙂

At 65 I’ve recently replaced my winter hardtail with a winter FS. It was definitely easier on my body.

It’s all I have ever ridden/raced.

You do get into the habit of ‘riding light’ and constantly scanning for the best lines.

Big tyres can help take the edge off and (for me)tubeless pressures (with inserts) has been a game changer .

I do feel more battered after a long day out,but a hardtail or gravel bike have been my only options.

As I am knocking on a bit now ,I have been looking at some carbon, short travel,full suss frames.

Yes, because over time I moved my alloy HT/s on and bought steelies! Major difference.

Plus of course HT riding style improves over time, relaxed arms, floppy bendy elbows and floppy bendy knees are key for me.

Maybe some fork tuning, tyre setup required too? Cockpit mods like someone said above.

But as I said… steel!

I don’t feel as battered riding the HT as I used to, combination maybe of not riding so hard (but that’s probably relative or inversely proportional to age) and types of trail. Which brings me to…

So many modern trails are built with suspension in mind now IMO. Whereas older, more natural trails, smoother/flowy trails, I don’t feel it as much.

I think it’s the opposite. Newer trails are built for flow to my mind and I wonder why the need for FS, but that’s in my local knowledge. I still prefer to ride the HT at the Golfie and other Tweed Valley locations, the FS sucks the life out of the trail. And feeling battered afterwards makes the pizza and pint all the more rewarding.

Unless it’s a banshee paradox lol go fully

Mostly for me being much more careful where I brake has the biggest effect.

Yes, and that’s why I enjoy riding my hardtail, because of the feedback it gives me about braking.

Hardtail riding is a different technique since you have to suck the hits with your legs.

Over time, you learn to plan lines better, don’t sit down as much so you can deal with trail buzz by hovering, and you don’t rely on the bike to do the work as much, because of course, you cant.

It depends on your trails, but generally, when you become more proficient at HT technique, it does batter you less, but only to a point because, well, it’s a hardtail.

I think it’s the opposite. Newer trails are built for flow to my mind and I wonder why the need for FS, but that’s in my local knowledge.

Maybe the last 5 years or so…
Sadly I’m looking at the last 10-15 years, there was a real period of ‘rocks rocks rocks’ – Golspie, Laggan, Antur Stiniog, Whinlatter etc

I’m still of the view that some chubby tyres, good technique and a focus on fun not fastest and I’m not that much more battered. I’m probably slower…

I only had a hardtail for ages. When I got a full suss I rode the same places but with different lines and speed.

Now I mostly ride my hardtail round the local stuff- smooth and sandy mostly. When I take my hardtail to the peaks I always get a shock with how much harder it is.

Fair play taking a hard tail to Antur Stiniog. Every time I’ve ridden there I come away feeling battered. Including when I was regularly riding a 200/200mm coil sprung dh bike.

I think you get used to everything. But if you aren’t regularly doing uplift days you will feel sore after doing one

Fair play taking a hard tail to Antur Stiniog.

Yeah, next time I’d definitely take the full sus. But if it was out of action then I’d be happy to take the hardtail again.

It did make me think of Blake Sampson doing the Megavalanche on a hardtail though.

It did make me think of Blake Sampson doing the Megavalanche on a hardtail though

I’ve tried a hardtail on some of the course, I’d planned to race hardtail this year but injured myself in qualifying.  Also I’d nicked the headset and front brake to keep the full suss working for quali.

I wouldn’t fancy qualifying on one.

If you’re happy at Antur on a hardtail, I don’t think the Mega track is unreasonable.

Id say yes as I only got a full sus a couple of years back and my friends do say that after years on a hardtail i pick way smoother lines although this is probably at the cost of faster lines. Then again im old and am happy to survive some trails

Yes. Partly conditioning, partly being more active on the bike and working it over the trail, rather than just plowing through stuff like you would on a full sus.

Still catches me out on occasion if I’ve been riding the big bike lots!

The first time I rode Antur (which I think was also my first time at an uplift venue) I was on a Cotic Soul 26” with 140mm fork, and I’d only ever ridden hardtails. We did (the newly opened) BPW the following day. My fingers literally hurt (a bit) for the next three months. Since that trip I think I’ve always been on a full-sus for similar places.

However, I’d like to go back there on my Moxie with its much better geometry, bigger wheels and tyres, a far better fork and bigger brakes!

“Over time, you learn to plan lines better, don’t sit down as much so you can deal with trail buzz by hovering, and you don’t rely on the bike to do the work as much, because of course, you cant.”

Antur Stiniog is fully downhill – I’m not sure I sit down at all between the top and bottom on any bike, and you’d barely go any slower with the chain missing.

“after years on a hardtail i pick way smoother lines”

I’ve always had a hardtail and it’s been my main MTB much of the time – I’m not sure I pick smooth lines, I like straightlining through the rough or popping/pumping bits of it. What I do avoid is braking on the rough on the hardtail.

You do get into the habit of ‘riding light’ and constantly scanning for the best lines.

This, I don’t particularly grip the bars so much as I keep my hands floating round them, for the really high frequency stuff that helps. It’s a different technique for sure.

I’ve just got a modern trail hardtail to sit alongside my full suss and I’m loving it so far. Biggest thing I’ve found to reduce fatigue / battering is exactly what chiefgrooveguru says above…. Don’t brake on the rough stuff unless you really have to. It really seems to make a difference to arm pump. But also what everyone says… it’s never going to be less battering than a full suss. I would like to try some 2.6 tyres rather than 2.4 at some point, and some fancier bars/grips, to see how much I can close the speed / comfort gap to my full suss. Looking forward to the experiment as my bikes have very similar geometry.

However, I’d like to go back there on my Moxie with its much better geometry, bigger wheels and tyres, a far better fork and bigger brakes!

That’s part of the reason I took my hardtail, just to see what it could do.

Point taken about choosing where to brake. I also found that the harder I was pushing the easier it got.

I always seem to come back to hardtails, can’t beat the simplicity and for the kind of trails I ride most of the time I don’t need FS except when I want an extra confidence boost! Did many an uplift with my old Trailstar and Blender. You do feel battered afterwards but that’s part of the fun (I may disagree now I’m older, been a while since I’ve done a full uplift day). Haven’t ridden many rough DH trails since getting a more modern 29er hardtail but I think it’ll help a bit with the battering.

I recently switched to a HT after riding FS bikes for the last few decades and the death grip and sore feet do go away after you get used to riding them but as others have said, you do have to change how you ride and can’t expect to just plough through everything as you would on a bike with rear suspension.

I save the hardtail for Winter times, when the ground is softer and slower. Or for more mellow rides. Wouldn’t take it to a bike park! Fair play.

Ive found myself using my hard tail less as I get older. This is largely because I’ve had a couple of issues with a herniated disc in the least few years.

but stiff backs aside, I’ve found that more fitness really helps to reduce the battering. Hard tails need to be ridden more actively imo. So you have to choose your lines, and pay more attention to your technique. But that requires fitness as well as technique (imo).

A bike park like Antur or BPW – no matter how much I love hard tails, I’d hate to be riding one in a place like that. It’s actually the more technical trails where I’m less bothered by the HT. But the faster trails, especially if there are fast speed rock gardens, or lots of braking bumps – those trails just make hard tails seem like a chore to me.

I gave up on hardtails for XC. Despite the trails being pretty tame I found my back was a state the next day. Nowadays there only hardtails i have are dirt jumpers

You do get into the habit of ‘riding light’ and constantly scanning for the best lines.
This, I don’t particularly grip the bars so much as I keep my hands floating round them, for the really high frequency stuff that helps. It’s a different technique for sure.

It’s an interesting discussion. Bikeradar had a ‘debate’ a couple of months back about whether ebikes are ruining trails (their conclusion was no they’re not, get with the program grandad); but they missed the point that you ride a trail differently. Hardtail (and short-travel bikes) make you work for the speed, you pick a line and move the bike around to keep it flowing. Longer-travel FS it seems you just roll straight through/ over everything, gathering speed as you go and wondering where the excitement went.

Probably starting to sound like a stuck record, but….

Always had a hardtail of some description in the stable and taken them for what they are and accepted that you have to massively adjust your riding style and will get a bit of a battering

However – the Ragley Big Al is so compliant and comfy you sometimes forget you’re riding a HT. Yeah on fast brutal Peak rocks you notice it and are definitely a bit slower, but for the majority of my riding it’s pretty much as fast as a FS and I don’t find myself wishing I was on one tbh

First response nailed it.

IMO it just got less and less enjoyable until I gave up and got a short-travel 29er instead – which is so much better for almost everything.

I put carbon bars and ergon grips on my HT and that reduced the battering.

2.6 tyres ftw!

Specialized 2.6 eliminators in Grid trail or tougher casing (regular Grid isnt enough) are knock about cheap at the moment

Something else not often mentioned is the capability of the fork.

It’s more important to have a good fork on a HT if you’re going to hit the rough stuff at speed.  There’s only so much you can absorb with your legs before the trail starts coming into the bike from the back wheel and unsettling it.  Then the fork has to manage the inputs from the front and the back.

I generally put the HT away from big hill riding somewhere around May/June when the ground hardens up. Vision blur from back end inputs is the key indicator its time to get the FS out! Irrespective of how good your fork is, the limit is always lower than an FS, but it’s fun to see how close you can get on a less capable bike.