new bike, rear suspension or not?

wittetulp

Been a life long keen cyclist (dutch nationality, what do you expect), Mainly roadcycling though, but with the recent "discovery" of a great mountain biking trail nearby, in Cannock Chase, I have really been taking to mountain biking.

Though enjoying it, i have realised that with no suspension at all on my old bike, I put lots of strain on wrists, hips and knees, joints I have to look after whilst approaching my mid century.

Looking to upgrade to a newer, lighter, better bike I can work out what i need (more or less) re front suspension and brakes from other posts, what i cannot work out is whether i should look at back suspension or not. Is that going to reduce the impact on my knees/ hips at all? What are the disadvantages? What do "most" fairly serious cyclist choose in that respect.

Additional info; main use will be off road, although, might end up on the road occasionally, do not really want to spend much more then £ 500.

Any thoughts?

Cps

£ for £ you will always getter a better parts and lower weight on a hard tail bike vs a full suspension bike - unless of course you find a real 'steal' deal on ebay.


Also unless you are going to spend all you time in the DH area of CC then a Hardtail will cope with everything else the place has to throw at you!

Steve_b77

With that kinda budget in mind definatley go for a Hard Tail, there are plenty of cracking ones at that price point

dirtbiker100

I'd say hardtail for that money. definitely. GT avalanche?

wittetulp

ok, lets just forget about the budget for a minute; considering my concerns re knee/ hipjoints; would i benefit from rear suspension, or would i not feel any significant difference or would i even be disadvantaged with rear suspension. (I don't race, just follow the trail and enjoy myself)

dirtbiker100

a well set-up rear suspension bike will be much better on the knees. Many XC racers use full suspension so it shows how effiecient they are these days. But i think for your riding and needs, you'd want to spend almost as much as £1000. At £500 the rear suspension would be worse for you than a hardtail.

Kiwi Kranker

if you can forget about the budget For now I would go with a full suss, as a friend of mine had similar issues to you on his HT with front suspension but his biggest problem was his back.

A full suss has solved this.

Best advice is to test ride both (over the same trail) and see what you like. You will have both schools of thought here, people who love HTs and people who will swear to the full suss. (I have had both at the same time and my HT just ended up gathering dust)

Anonymous

for the most part i agree with the advice you have been given, at 500 quid, a hardtail will give you your best value for money and will get you hydraulic brakes, 27 gears and a damped fork. the bike will even possibly be less than 30 pounds in weight.

if you can stretch to about a grand, your choices of full sus bikes is massive, you can even get a decent full sus for much less than a grand these days if you know where to look.

if you want comfort from your riding then a full sus will give you exactly that, it will enable you to ride further and longer with less exhaustion, even if the bike is a tad heavier than a hardtail,

be aware, when you get told to buy a hardtail, it will mostly be hardtail owners telling you this as they might not realise how good full sus bikes are theses days, even at around a grand.

Bikerbaboon

i think that the length of time the rider has been riding off road should be looked at for the HT or full sus as well as price ( sub £800 is the land of the hardtail ). People should learn the skills to riding well off road on a HT, partly because they dont let you getaway with being sloppy if you want to ride quickly and effichently, but also because you get a direct feel form the pedals so you can get a better fellign of what the bike is up to. its also easyer to learn the correct way of bunny hopping and manuals etc

Also a hardtail will not limit what you can get over for the majority of the riding it will just limit the speed that you can do it, as you can rairly just clatter over rough sectaions and come out undercontroll and still at speed.
I ride a hardtail as i like the feel of it and i think my next bike may well be another HT i dont ride in compertitions and im no DH legend so speed is not a big factor, i do ride for fitness and fun...... I do use a sus seat post so i am kinda cheating. I realy can see why people get a ful sus bike, as it does make riding alot easyer.

Anonymous

riding a ht doesnt make you a better fs rider, it make you a better ht rider, the whole subject has been discussed to death and everytime it turns out to be a load of hippy crap

supersonic

In your opinion ;-)

It depends on the rider. Many pros inc DHers will go out and do some practice on a HT or even a fully rigid to hone line chocies and skills. Take them through to the FS, and they feel they can push harder and do even more. Keeps them sharp.

Anonymous

you and i both know sonic, i am always correct, ALWAYS

supersonic

hehehe.

Bikerbaboon

sorry if my post has kinda hyjacked you thread about what bike you need to look for.
also i did not read about hte joint problems that you are suffering from, from that i would say that tryign to save a bit more and go for a £800-1000 full sus sould save you from a fair chunk of the abuse that you do go through on a HT ( full sus riders whimps the lot of yar :P)
I would also would say that its better to buy a bike that you have sat on. Fitting for a mtb is a very personal thing.

I think picking a mtb is like picking a woman...... some like them big, some like them small but we all like them dirty :shock:

Wooohooo!

Agree with "sheepsteeth"... Just because you may be good on a HT doesn't mean you'll be good on a FS, however I also can see where "supersonic" gets his opinion from.

Back to the original question though (:roll: )... For £539.96 (It's worth the extra £39.96) this... http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=produ ... goryId=129, which I have posted in a couple of other threads...

supersonic

If I ride a new trail on the Idrive, I am more likely to use that sus and bulldoze my way through what it can handle.

If I take the zaskar I will use more of my skill to get the bike through sections.

If I go back to the idrive, I will then use my skill AND the suspension and take harder even quicker lines!

Maybe.

teacherman

Ideally a hardtail. BUT all things taken into consideration FS - unless you want to be speding £1000 in a year or sos time. At least that's what I did

Anonymous

supersonic wrote:

If I ride a new trail on the Idrive, I am more likely to use that sus and bulldoze my way through what it can handle.

If I take the zaskar I will use more of my skill to get the bike through sections.

If I go back to the idrive, I will then use my skill AND the suspension and take harder even quicker lines!

Maybe.

i thought all of that hardtail rding made you better anyway so why dont you just pick a hardtail line on your fs in the first place?

supersonic

It doesn't work out like that 100%, I am sure you get the drift, but riding full suss all the time makes me lazy. I'm sticking rigids on the Zaskar for winter to really sharpen me up.

Same with SPDs and flats - too much SPD riding and you start to jump with the bike, rather than proper weight shifting, and maybe start to mash the pedals thinking you are turning smooth circles. Learn to do that on flats, and you'll be a better SPD rider.

Papa Smurf

I'm with supersonic about the FS, just brought myself an i drive and not taken it properly off road yet but have been arsing about around town, jumping about and trying it out. Despite the advantages of the rear suspension in terms of comfort, it really does make the whole experience more 'fun', for me at least.. I feel as though I can push it alot more now, and although I've only been mucking around.. I'm seriously impressed!
So with regards to your budget, and using the i-drive as an example, it's £800 new from Halfords but I got mine for £600. Try checking out Gumtree or sites like ebay, if unsure, post the link up here and people will tell you whether your looking at something good or not.

And although I'm no expert, going by what your saying about knees etc.. It sounds like it'd be very much worth your while going for a full suss.. But shop around!

wittetulp

thanks for all that advice. Local Bike shop will hire out HT and FS bikes allowing me to try both on the actual trail, that will be the next step.

thanks again