Please help me to decide?
muddylegs
Posts: 485
I have entered the mud sweat and gears events in Essex this summer, so I need a new bike. 
I was thinking about buying a full sus to compete on but after going on a ride at the weekend and watching a couple of guys doing very well on there hard tails, that is the route that I would like to take.
I have just got my GT Karakoram out of the shed pumped up the tyres and taken it for a blast round the reserve.
After riding a heavy full sus round for over a year, that old ridged GT seems very fast.
So my dilemma is do I buy another hardtail (which I would like to be carbon) or do I buy a light set of front suspension forks new wheels and tyres and proceed that way. I would like your opinions please. I don’t have a budget yet for the carbon hardtail I was going to start looking around to see what kind of money they are.
I was thinking about buying a full sus to compete on but after going on a ride at the weekend and watching a couple of guys doing very well on there hard tails, that is the route that I would like to take.
I have just got my GT Karakoram out of the shed pumped up the tyres and taken it for a blast round the reserve.
After riding a heavy full sus round for over a year, that old ridged GT seems very fast.
So my dilemma is do I buy another hardtail (which I would like to be carbon) or do I buy a light set of front suspension forks new wheels and tyres and proceed that way. I would like your opinions please. I don’t have a budget yet for the carbon hardtail I was going to start looking around to see what kind of money they are.
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Comments
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The Karakoram was a decent steel frame in its day, but it is quite heavy. Still, if you enjoyed it then it may well be worth fixing her up.
I would say the frame is a good 5.5lbs - you can get XC full sus frames lighter ;-)0 -
Hi muddylegs,
Long time, no speak!
Since you have both bikes for comparison, i would consider a few timed runs to see if the hardtail is really quicker or just feels it. That suspension smoothing the way might be disguising how quick you are going.
As for the kit question, buying a good set of light wheels will likely improve any bike you end up with since it's usually an area where manufacturers make savings.
Martin0
