Your reasons for owning a Hard Tail and a Full suspension ?

vim147

Just wanted to know your reasons for owning both bikes.

What do you do with one that you cant do with another ?

Is it just about the weight ? What does yours weigh ?

100mm Hard Tail / 120mm XC Full Suspension, Much difference in riding ?

Is it just about comfort ?



Thinking weather i should have a 100mm Hard Tail and a 120mm Full Suspension.

felix.london

depends where and what you're riding

I'm getting a DH bike to ride DH. I would also like an AM bike for northshore & some of the nice, long descents over here

but my HT will get me up to and over 2,000m quicker & easier than either of those two

MountainMonster

I love the comfort of FS bikes, and I have one mainly because everyone else I ride with has them, so it can be very tiresome trying to keep up with them on a hardtail due to the nature of the trails here.

tom_howard

I use my full suss for DH, because its a 46lb, 9" travel DH bike which makes me faint when I think about riding it anywhere I dont have gravity on my side.

For everything else I ride the hardtail, the reason being that, up until I bought it I'd had full sussers of many a designfor about 8 years and I found myself wanting to sharpen my skills with a bike that would kick me in the ass if I got anything wrong (the DH bike just wants to massage my ego), and was fed up with having my energy robbed by the suspension on the climbs.

That said.... I'm now looking to swap out my hardtail frame for a nice 150mm efficient FS to glean just a bit more speed on the DH sections of my rides (the DHer in me gets really frustrated!)

Anonymous

I have a hardtail that I use occasionally. I like how it's lower centre of gravity (lower BB) lets it change direction like a housefly. It's lots of fun somewhere like Llandegla.
But, the full suss is better on everything else, so...

allen.coulson

Price or Value for Money. Got a very good HT and with the same cash could have got a ok FS. I'm happy with the way I did it.

Raymondavalon

Good question...

The [Kona] HT that I used to own and ride on a regular basis could climb like a billy goat, i give it that, so on the fire roads and smoother trails it was great, but it felt limited on the rough and more technical stuff

I opted for an[All Mountain] FS for the sake of wanting to "own one", now it's my primary bike, I do most trails with it and much prefer it to an HT
It gives me much more confidence on the rocky, rooted terrain that I tend to ride on mostly and the slacker steering angle makes it a little lazy and forgiving

Nrj

I've got them the other way round,

my fs is a lightweight wippet and the ht is my 160mm play bike.

ive thought about getting a new bike to swap them about and have ht as short travel and fs as the big one.

problem is i love both bikes, and a mmmbop doesnt deserve to have 100mm (although i can adjust down i never do). And the mount vision is an older 2005 model but so light and fast.

paul.skibum

I have a Cove Handjob 100mm hardtail which I love but is currently in the UK and an old Heckler (100mm front and rear) which is out here in Canada with me - I like the FS but I am considering getting a HT frame to swap with the Heckler frame as I miss the HT.

For much of the trail riding here a HT would be my choice.

However the plan would be to get a new 140mm full suss for next spring to cope with the harder terrain/occassional bike park.

nicklouse

Why not.

The Northern Monkey

nicklouse wrote:

Why not.

Exactly.


If I got rid of 1 bike, it would probably be the HT.
But only because I can't ride the HT of the downhill (I tried an failed lol).

britishseapower

HT - Focus Black Forest, 100mm
FS - Giant Trance X3, 125mm F&R

The Giant is more comfortable, in any situation due to a more relaxed position. I tend to use the Giant around Cannock Chase, Sherwood Pines and the peaks whereas the Focus is used for local trails rides, rides that include plenty of road sections and going to work.

That said the Focus feels much quicker, more racey/perched position. Taken it around Sherwood a few times but don't think i'd fancy taking it around chase or out into the depths of the Peaks.

Probably about 3-4lbs difference with the HT being lighter. The Focus has a better feels on the gears but the Giant has better brakes and suspension, by a long way, not that impressed with the Focus' RockShox Recon Silver TK, although remote lockout is useful, but Fox Float wins hands down.

Therefore IMO, hardtail for racing/setting fast laps/road use if you dont like road bikes much, full sus for bouncing around trials with mates having more fun! That said you'd get a better HT for the same money.

u05harrisb

for me i got a hardtail for value for money (only 17 here :roll: ) and do fine racing it on the XC series, i really enjoy big hills- and yes the going up mainly :shock: - although i do do a fair bit of more tech stuff like red n black and i keep up with guys i ride with on 140mm full sus bikes fine, but its more of a make do. i would love to have either a 120mm HT set up for trail with bigger tyres and slacker geo that or a 120-140mm full sus. but would have to try both out to see though as i have only really used a 100mm XC susser to race once with before haha

weeksy59

I had the choice recently to have the HT/FS, owning the Meta 55 and the Giant XTCV 29er, however, sold the Meta. I can see the appeal without doubt of the FS bike, however the HT is quicker.. my figures and 4 runs out of 4 all quicker on the HT.So the HT wins and the FS was sold.

I may regret selling the FS... but for now the HT is the better bike for me.

Briggo

As I live in fairly flat Norfolk the Whyte is much better suited to the terrain for some racing etc and makes the local play area much more challenging, also used to commute to work now and then.

The Stumpy comes out when I'm on my travels or wanting to really hammer my local play area for fun.

Razor1548

yeehaamcgee wrote:

I
But, the full suss is better on everything else, so...

So?

*baited breath*

Anonymous

So, that's the one that gets used, almost exclusively.

jay12

becuase i couldn't afford a full suss at the time. hardtails are great fun and easy to learn on and service.

but i'm getting more into freeride and dh and a hardtail just isn't up to the job so i'm getting a 180mm freeride full suss frame next year

kinmofo

rode a ht for years, on roads and trails. always wanted a fs so badly, so I built one. it was kind of done on a low budget but i didn't do too badly i think. picture in my signature.

all i need for it is beefyer rear sus cos im a tall heavy cnut lol and some hydro's cos im on cable discs n they're just not upto the job imho.

if it makes any difference, anything i've owned be it fs or ht has been 17" frame, even though im 6ft5 and i do have a road bike that im about to re build as i found a rigid raleigh in the alley behind my flat, no brakes is only problem. lol

DodgeT

Had a couple of hardtails to start off with, then went FS. Now have a 160mm AM bike which I use everywhere except for trips down the shops / canal / road where I use my nice cheap carrera vulcan with rigid forks.
Anything off road, FS is just way more fun and enjoyable than a HT. For me anyway.

ddraver

The Northern Monkey wrote:

nicklouse wrote:

Why not.

Exactly.


If I got rid of 1 bike, it would probably be the HT.
But only because I can't ride the HT of the downhill (I tried an failed lol).

n + 1

MelaMel

allen.coulson wrote:

Price or Value for Money. Got a very good HT and with the same cash could have got a ok FS. I'm happy with the way I did it.

Same here, got what I could for the money I had.

cat_with_no_tail

HT for beach riding, commuting, rides with the nippers and light XC type stuff.

FS for "proper" MTB and everything else.

Mostly though, "because I felt like it".

lastwords

Had both the FS was more comfortable and definatly quicker over the rough stuff but i like to stand a lot when climbing (probably cause i own a singlespeed aswell) so a HT is for me.

Been to the peak district, cannock chase, and sherwood pines on it and can do everything i could do on my FS with just as much fun.

matt@theforce

FS for pleasure riding in the Peak District/Wharncliffe

HT for commuting/nipping to the shops and pulling the trailer bike

pilch

XC/AM

Anonymous

Haven't got the HT yet but it's coming soon probably. Reason being the FS is a big bulky affair, good for technical things and going fast down stuff, but it's heavy, big and not very easy to do a relatively flat and long XC kind of ride. I want something I can do XC rides and be able to keep up with the others (who usually have HTs), but also want something simple and light I can just take out the front door any time and ride around local flat stuff.

Also if I want to go off somewhere and stop by a shop or pub or something, I'd rather a nice cheap (as it will be) HT than an expensive FS be sat outside.

cee

wait.....nobody told me I needed a reason to own more than one bike!

round at mine...they just seem to be mulitplying!

Meatfox

I got a fullsus cos it makes me look like i know what Im doing.

Then i crashed it and havent been able to ride since beginning of july. The joy.

lawman

140mm FS all the way for me now, rode my old hardtail t'other day, similar kinda build to my FS same intended purpose for trail riding, and it felt shitee!!! My mojo is so much more forgiving, faster, lighter, feels more agile but more stable, just bloody marvelous, my maxlight in comparison felt twitchy, like majorly so, quite scary tbh!!

bluechair84

Own an NS hardtail and an Ellsworth FS - if I had to get rid of one (which I'm thinking about doing), it would be the HT.

However, the FS is currently built up fairly meaty for DH use. If I was to have one bike I'd keep the forks and wheels off the HT to build up the FS nice and light. So effectively I'd still have two bikes... or two builds at least.

Why have both? Meh, don't know anymore. The HT never gets used.