First serious bike?

ben1965

Hi, could do with a little advice please, i am 44 pretty fit but want to take up mountain biking as a hobby. I have visited several shops looked at no end of bikes read reviews and tried out a few on day rides and im no nearer purchasing a bike than i was.
the main use for the bike will be trails (dolby forrest) bit of road cycling in spain in the summer, bit of fun in the woods, if you pardon the expression thats about it. I have looked at hardtails i understand these give slightly more traction up hills in wet conditions tha full suss and are better on roads, where as full suss give a better all round ride for comfort and fun, my budget is £800.00 and the two bikes i have in mind at the momment are the boardman compfs and the specialized rockhopper expert if anyone can give any advice it would be most appreciated. thanks :

llamafarmer

Hmmmm

Well a hardtail would be better on the road as you have no need for a bouncy rear end on a flat road. They will generally be lighter and better equipped than an equally priced full sus.

Full sussers can actually give better traction uphill when offroad as they keep the rear wheel in contact with the ground more of the time, but the rear shock will 'bob' slightly (despite all the claims of the manufacturers) when pedalling, which saps some of the energy you exert.

There's endless threads debating which is best, so have a little search of the forums for the never ending arguments But from what you describe, I'd recommend a hardtail.

ben1965

cheers for the reply, im leaning more to the hardtail purely because of the name but if anyone can give me a good reason to go with full suss then who knows lol