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Many happy returns to us for tomorrow!
41 and loving my Dartmoor phantom 4x so much! I want to have fun riding, and this is just about right for me 🙂
Started serious MTBing 10 years ago...when I was 34. Now doing stuff I wouldn't even look at back then.
48, just bought a cheapo HT and am like a kid with a new toy on every ride 😀
Used to get air on horses now I want to learn to jump bikes. Son thinks I'm mad but he's a roadie purist into his fixy. Used to ride single gear rigid bikes as a kid and hardtail motor bikes in my teens and early twenties. Got back on a bike a few months ago and rode around the quantocks which has now become a fairly regular jaunt. FS just doesn't do it for me.....really it doesn't.
I've been playing out on my only mtb tonight, a Prince Albert.
54th birthday last Wednesday.
Swore off race hardtails years ago, but my slack 29er has been a revelation, so much so I'm debating which bike for Queenstown trip this weekend, which will include half a day of uplift. There was a time when there was no option...
40 and swapped my FS for a cross bike a couple of years ago. Haven't missed it. I always had more fun on a hardtail, and I'm not even very good.
33 and the HT is taking a back seat as my full suss is brand new, it will come back out or end up being transformed into something carbon to get the weight down.
The thing that gets me off it most is back problems but I've had those for 20 years...
In the local woods it's as quick as anything and great fun so it will be getting a rebuild 🙂
I'm close to 62 and love my Trek Superfly Al Elite. Spend a lot of time on Cannock Chase and can usually do the Monkey in under sixty minutes. I've done the Marin, Coed Y Brenin, Penmachno plus many others all on hardtail!
I've just turned 30 and I'm only just getting started ragging it. Riding full suss most at the moment because my hardtail is crap, but seriously considering replacing it with a 456 or similar.
Mate of mine is 45 and he's only just started moutain biking full stop, you're never too old.
43 - Apart from a one year aberration, a life-time HT rider. Currently on a Chumba HX1. With big tyres it is remarkably comfy, even on rocky descents.
I'm slowing down a bit and don't get the wheels of my Soul off the ground too much. I still love the rocky descents of the peak & the lakes on it - I think full sus would just make it less fun.
60
37 and riding around Airedale, the Dales and Gisburn on my Soul. Recently had a weekend at K'tree etc but natural riding on a steel hardtail is way better.
I've only ever ridden FS once, no big deal, although Cotic rockets look nice 😀
69 here. Went back to a Soul last year and love it. Still keep the Five for those rockier trails though. 😀
55 and love ragging my Ragley mmmbop 69er. Ride rigid single speed and FS. Too.. In fact currently nursing a broken rib from over exuberance on FS at BPWales.
There's no hope for some of you if you think riding a hardtail in your 30s is an achievement 😆
What are you going to do in your 40s & 50s ?
I've been over that yardarm for a few years now, no reason to stop, no reason at all..
Just bought a new Crossbike and looking forward to ragging that right good and propers.
I'm 36 and still haven't done more than a couple of rides with suspension forks.
40 and just recently swapped most parts over from a tricked up Zesty to a Slackline 631. It's more physical and I'm finding it more fun too.
40 early next year (eek) 2 out of 3 of my bikes are hardtails Soul and an On One SS 29er... Love riding them and they do 90% of my riding. The Soul is great to rag...
Not sure if this counts as ragging but I'm 40 next year and still enjoying the hardtail. Made this vid of me mucking about on some local trails about this time last year.
Awesome video, I love Western Park. I used to live a 15 minute ride from there when I was at uni so I was down there every morning before lectures 😀 Although last time I rode there, some work had been done to the lips of the main big line and they felt really odd to ride compared to usual, like they kicked you up weird somehow. Maybe just needed riding in a bit. I really want to try out those bigger ones that split off to the right as well. And I need to do the big step down! Hopefully gonna get down there next week for a ride 🙂
Never had a bouncer - currently loving my Soul and still using my Cube for rides with the kids seat on the back, or with slicks on for road use. Not much of a jumping god, but looking to learn /improve that, rather than back out of it! 45 in a couple of months time.
58, riding an Orange 650b prototype. Barnstormer of a bike, but not as quick or forgiving as my FS for my getting older bones!!
My Dad started mountain biking aged 55 and is still going strong on his hardtail at 60.
I'm 33 and recently bought a hardtail - I've not us my full suss since!
I rode the Trans Provence on a hardtail(the full week!!)in 2009.
Still got a Dialled PA and loving it, at the ripe old age of....49 and a bit 😉
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rocketman - MemberWhat are you going to do in your 40s & 50s ?
Jigsaws.
TBH if I find myself slowing down/calming down with age it'll be full suss bikes that go first not hardtails. Might come a day in about 15 years or so where downhill racing doesn't seem like such a wise choice 🙂
that was part of my feeling of getting rid of the FS - on a HT I am likely to go a bit slower !TBH if I find myself slowing down/calming down with age it'll be full suss bikes that go first not hardtails
Argghhh!
Why do so many people think like this ?
Just order the bloody coffin and be done with.
35! Thirtybloodyfive !
Give yourself a slap.
50 - will never ride a hardtail again - its FS all the way for me now. The constant punishment of my lower back due to 6hr+ and multi-day races on a hardtail resulted in a serious back injury, and anyway I'm actually faster and more in control on a FS.
50 here. Ride my hardtail more than my FS., absolutely love it My ragging and jumping are modest but that's skill not age related. FWIW I started mountain biking when I was 44, prior to that I hadn't really ridden a bike since I was 15.
@dropesoi - nice video
41 This year........... What is this FS you speak of ? 😯
I`ve only ever owned Hardtails, most of them slack with big forks and 2.3"+ Tyres
43 and always ridden hardtails (has to be 853 steel and painted orange though)!
35 is young. Hard tails are just more fun.
I love my Cube Reaction 29er and the Soul is just hilarious fun. Yeti 575 is a total weapon but somehow less amusing.
Did I mention that its my 35th today?..
Happy birthday mate
Loving my HTs.
Was chatting to a group of guys in Morzine a few years ago who were regular visitors. Al in their 60s.
56 here, regularly riding 3 HTs (2 of which SS, 1 rigid). Like to keep the wheels on the ground these days though they do occasionally get air (as proven by the cracked rib I suffered earlier this year 😳 ).
I was 51 in July, only started MTB riding at the tender age of 46, have never owned a FS (only ridden one once, on Holiday) have a 29er geared, 26 inch geared, and 26 inch singlespeed hardtails as well as a hybrid, a unicycle (that I must learn to ride) and a couple of frames and bit waiting to be built up into bikes.
Ridden over 1600 miles on my bikes so far, this year.
51 one the outside 12 and a half on the inside. 😉
I will be come March next year.
Happy Birthday for yesterday, Slim!
43 and ride a BMX... OMTFU (Old Man The etc etc)
Me. Cotic Soul. 38. Still telling myself that I'm a few months from really nailing the black run jumps 😉 Determined to ride the hardtail everywhere I can.
was 40 this summer.
sold my last FS (Devinci Dixon) last January and bought a 29'er hardtail (carbon stumpy)
never missed the FS in the South-East of England, find the hardtail is more fun to ride, I go faster and much easier to look after in Winter
could only see myself buying a FS if I moved somewhere with lots of elevations and rocks (not the South-East then..)
what a bunch of old fogies, I thought everyone here was young and fast.
I'm 35 and don't ride my hardtail very often, partly as it's a dj and too small for xc riding, and partly because it is rock solid and gives me terrible back ache. Wouldn't mind having a 'proper' hardtail for mincing around the local hills and glentress in the winter though.
I did not get mine till I was 39, having not been on a bike for over 20 years, that was 18 months ago, got a nice shiney road bike too now 🙂
Saving up to build a Cotic Solaris now too
35 this year. I got over very serious back problems 9 years ago and have been injury-free since then (wood touched) with plenty of pilates.
I have a full-sus, but mainly ride hardtails.
I'm 40 and still booting about. Go as long as you want. Theres a chap over 60 who still races bmx regularly.
f##k me lad - I'm a grandad and I still ride and rag 3 hardtails. Might take a bit longer to pick up and dust down, but christ you're asking this question 'cos you're reaching 30......
bigjim - Memberwhat a bunch of old fogies, I thought everyone here was young and fast.
I'm 35
Then you are officially old, according to this thread.
Only ever owned a HT and quite fancy the Kimesis FF29 as a new bike. But getting to an age when feel the back could do with a FS!!!
Have a Blue Pig and an auld Kona Dawg
Went to Chatel last year 😆
Did the Dunkeld Enduro this year and next weekend is Dalbeattie Hardrock Challenge duathalon, the only event I usually do.
59
Knackered back means the auld Dawg is getting more use atm but will be mothballed for the winter and until I decide on a final fling abroad next yr 💡
what a bunch of old fogies, I thought everyone here was young and fast.
Most posters on this thread are in their teens and twenties..
But you must remember that on STW it's cool to lie and pretend that you are a boring old middle aged tit who does everything in life excruciatingly sensibly..
35 and finish Ironbike in july on a HT. Still can't feel hands or toes but the feeling is coming back!
Most posters on this thread are in their teens and twenties..
In their minds. However the saggy bits on their bodies indicate otherwise.
Just hit 43. Had Yeti, Trek and Spesh FS bikes, but just feel I ride faster on my hardtails or rigids. So bouncys were binned. Now have a 456c , Scandal and Pipedream SS Ti. I am a riding god and ride faster than anyone ( well until some young whippet screams passed !)
Ride with guys who are pensioners and we now discuss doctors notes and aged injuries over what we pulled and drunken times of the past.
Got mostly hardtails and am 35. Not sure which I'm faster on as I've not timed myself but I know for sure age isn't slowing me down. I've been biking for 20 years and I'm actually sure I'm faster now downhill than I used to be. Love raggin all my bikes.
43 here ....and I can still crash like a 20 yr old ........just takes longer to get back up .. 😉
@beligabob - unicycle that's excellent, photos required on here once you are riding it.
Then you are officially old, according to this thread.
well I can't seem to stand up or sit down without saying ooof these days
50 here. Kinesis HT.
2007 Meta stripped frame on the wall gathering dust after I used its bits for the K. after 2 years.
I remember listening to old boys saying they didn't feel 50 or whatever and thinking "Yeah, right - Bravado BS"
I don't feel 50...........
Evil Sovereign here. It's a handful. I love it. 44 in three weeks