Full suspension vs hardtail

esassin

Hi,

Need advice on which bike would be better for me.

Previous dirt jumping background and hardtail. Want to upgrade to a full sus as recently moved to live on the edge of New Forest and the hardtail is too small. I have an aggressive riding style, and always looking for hits. Each ride requires a 10min uphil on asphalt and the trails I ride are mostly balanced up and down but I do enjoy my downhill sections alot. Also some sections of the trails I ride are flat and on asphalt.

To make this simple I am looking at the new Commencal range of bikes:

Hardtail:
http://www.commencal-store.co.uk/PBSCPr ... D=15147403

Trail FS:
http://www.commencal-store.co.uk/PBSCPr ... D=15147448

All mountain FS:
http://www.commencal-store.co.uk/PBSCPr ... D=14495044

This would be my only bike to ride, but not having owned a FS before I dont know how practical it would be. I do like that the FS bikes have a shock with lockout for my asphalt sections. I also like that the hardtail has loads of travel on the fork and amazing spec. I would also be looking to do downhill in my closed bike bark as I have had riden my friends DH there and loved the feel but think the trail bike would not have enough travel. Would a differnet spec AL bike with both lockout suspension better suit me?

So my question is which one as I am indecisive and need a new bike ASAP

The Rookie

Many FS bikes are practical only bikes, my main MTB (top link in sig) is a short travel FS that is no barely any different to ride than the HT it replaced (nearly all of the HT parts were put into the FS frame) except when the going gets 'tougher' (use relevant description here as required).

Not sure why you are only looking at Commies, they wouldn't be my first choice, A Giant Trance or Canyon Nerve would be the one I looked to first given what you say about usage

esassin

From what I read, the Fox suspension on the Canyon and most bikes in that braket are not the best and a pain to set up. Nobody has said that the floats are a good. Also with Canyon it's the wait times, but the low price does help but mixed customer service. Everyone with Canyon change the flats to rockshox pike. I was surprised with the price on the commies and they are most established.

The Rookie

Established doesn't mean good, given their frankly awful history for frame cracking (better now though).

The early Evo forks were poor, the higher end were still good, although this years are getting much better reviews, many swap straight to RS forks as the Fox's value 'as new' would mean the swap was just about zero cost - the rear shocks are still better than RS.