Hardtail or Full Susser??

Ok the burning question here is whats the best sort of bike for general off-roading??? Hardtail or Full Susser......

At the moment I ride a hardtail, (Claud Butler rock-nothing spesh but does the job just fine for me!!) but will be looking to buy a new steed next year so any help to narrow my huge list of possible bikes down to something a little more reasonable would be cool

Its all woodland singletrack and x/country round my way, no mountains (unfortunately) but there may be various trips to wales and Mount Blanc in the future!!
I do like to throw my bike around and want something that will be plenty flickable and climb well, but also handle jumps and drop-offs (and a fair amount of abuse

I'm sure there'll be a few arguments here, so to kick off I prefer hardtails (at the mo) but thats cause its all I've ridden!!

 

They both have their places. I like a hardtail at times and a FS at others. I actually prefer a FS at a lot of my local trails despite the lack of downhills, but because of all the damn tree roots. Its like riding over BIG cobble stones. Without a FS, you're standingthe entire time getting beat up.

I rented a hardtail on a vacation this summer to do some light downhilling at Winter Park. Lots of fun and the lack of suspension never held me back (mind you, this was NOT highly technical terrrain, but blue to easy black level trails.)

However, if I was to buy another FS, I would be spending a mint of money,a s I woudl want a nice, light, active suspension. Not cheap. I am currently building a sub 21 lbs hardtail for less than a grand. Not bad. Money matters sometimes.

 

sounds like i need to purchase a fs and keep me trusty hardtail. will keep my eye on here see what people think. Cheers mate

Ride on!!

 

I rode a hardtail for more than 10 years and swore I'd never change - too much weight, inefficient, more complicated, etc...

And that argument held for quite a few years. But these days the weight penalty is small, the efficiency loss on uphills is more than made up by the efficiency gain on the flat and downhills, and the designs are all pretty proven and reliable.

So I don't think there's much of a choice anymore. There's only two kinds of people I see on hardtails these days: beginners, or people or didn't want to spend too much on their first bike, and hardcore xc racers, who are all young and strong and don't care if they have a sore ass.