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I’ve just pulled the plug on a Ragley frame to build up using the parts off my old Jeffsy, for a winter/gentler rides bike.
It has just struck me that I haven’t ridden a hardtail for 15+ years.
Anything I need to know/remember?
im running 2.6 tyres on 29mm internal rims and its brilliant
I need to stick an insert in the rear
Unweight
Don’t hang off the back with modern geo HTs. I believe Hardtail Party had a YouTube video on it a while ago.
Expect the first few rides to rattle your teeth and jar your back until you remember the hardtail hover.
I'm also light and have been running an insert on the rear for a couple of months and it's flipping well good.
Other than that expect to lose traction more on the rear 😂
The only significant things I notice is that the timing is different (you preload much later for hops/jumps/drops) and you need to brace a bit more for hucks to flat-ish. If the geometry is like your full-sus then you don’t need to change much/anything else.
I ran an insert for a while but ended up with a lot of pinch flats. Changed to using dh casing on rear and some additional psi’s and it’s working out better for me.
You'll have to relearn to stand-up when riding over rough terrain, next you'll need to learn how best to relieve cramping calfs.
I love a hardtail.
You'll destroy many a rear tyre and rim until you realise that you can't just let your back wheel smash into rocks, steps, roots.....
Cheers for the tips.
Riding clipped in helps with confidence over the rough bits, at least it does for me. No worries about feet getting bounced off the pedals.
Just enjoy and have fun. Hardtails are ace! This time next year you’ll be riding a Stooge!
I love my hardtail, even though my back is finding it more and more difficult as I get older. As a rule of thumb, if I a:going to be riding a trail that I’m very familiar with, or is less technical, then the HT is the choice for me. My HT can handle any techy trail, but it hursts more afterwards.
i do run an insert in the back, with 2.6” tyres, and tend to run around 13-17psi in the rear to soften the blow.
when I move over from full suss to HT it does take me a wee while to readjust. It really encourages you to smarten up your technique. Even on tiny 4inch drops, you notice immediately if you land badly on a HT. Such a wonderful biking experience.
I am hoping it’ll improve my technique.
Main reason for buying it is because a) the frame was stupid cheap and b) it’s muddy doing here and washing the bike after using it is putting me off riding on marginal days.
I also think that a hardtail complements an quiver that has a gravel/commuter bike and a 150/160mm full sus.
I rode a FS this week for the first time in over a year. Great fun smashing carelessly through a rock garden and not caring about casing the rear wheel on jumps. But for me the HT wins by miles when it comes to pedaling up tech and riding precise lines.
The first thing I'd do is go looking for approval I've done the right thing
Reality is an absolute b##ch
The reasoning of getting a hardtail because its less maintenance or dont want to get a full suss muddy is laughable
I mean running tyres as low as 13 psi to make it bearable should tell you enough
If your bimbling around groomed trails and fire roads you'll be fine
If you want to do anything remotely knadgery you'll be hunting through the pinkbike buy & sell quick enough
I personally don't have a problem on the decents its the climbing on loose rocky trails that battle c##p out of me
Anyone who says thye can ride Anything on there ht is kidding themselves
@davidmoyesismydad did a hardtail sleep with your (presumed) wife?
Make sure you tell people you ride a HT at any given opportunity.
I don't make the rules.
If your bimbling around groomed trails and fire roads you’ll be fine.
I mean, how can you even call yourself a mountain biker if that's all you're doing. You need a gnarpoon for anything more than blue trails; it's all a fever dream in my head that I ride anything tech on a hardtail. I'll pull over and curtsey if I hear the clank of a swingarm behind me next time, just in case it's yourself xx
Opportunity
Never ridden a full sus.
I didn,t say it earlier but now someone else has I will .
Stooge is the answer.
If you want to do anything remotely knadgery you’ll be hunting through the pinkbike buy & sell quick enough
Yeah. I never ride anything challenging.
Challenging stuff is no problem for me on my HT. I mean, can manage to get up and down the trolley ramp at Tesco. Thinking of getting a dropper to help with the down bit.
The trolley ramp at Tesco? You must be insane. Get it on YouTube quick, you'll be in a redbull helmet in no time.
“If your bimbling around groomed trails and fire roads you’ll be fine”
https://m.pinkbike.com/news/chromag-doctahawk-a-nerdy-geometry-explanation.html
trolley ramp at Tesco
Pffft, you should have seen the puddle next to the VW T6.1 I had to negotiate. I had to wear chin guard and stormtrooper levels of padding to avoid the puddle pebbles...
If you want to do anything remotely knadgery you’ll be hunting through the pinkbike buy & sell quick enough
If you want a challenge surely you hit the STW classifieds😉
https://m.pinkbike.com/news/chromag-doctahawk-a-nerdy-geometry-explanation.html/blockquote >See also
https://m.pinkbike.com/news/chromag-chronicles-a-hardtail-riders-quest-from-tokyo-to-whistler.htmlI can't help but love a good "hardcore" steel hardtail. I've just gone back to FS to try and get some of my old confidence back on the bike, but can see me going back to a HT at some point. Maybe a Stanton Slackline gen3 since I always wanted one when they first came out and they still look cool.
“ https://m.pinkbike.com/news/chromag-chronicles-a-hardtail-riders-quest-from-tokyo-to-whistler.html”
Jinya’s “Hardtail in Whistler” video from 2010 was such an inspiration to me, as a newly returning MTBer. Having NoFX as the soundtrack doesn’t hurt either. I stuck with the hardtail life until an uplift weekend at Antur and BPW almost broke me!
I am curious how my current hardtail would be on those some trails - I rode them on a 26” Cotic Soul with 140mm Fox 32RLs, but my 29” Pipedream Moxie with 160mm Lyrik RC2 is far better at bump eating, and knocking 4 degrees off the head angle whilst adding about 70mm to the reach adds a lot of stability.
Some shots fired on here!
Personally, I think my HT amplifies things. If I'm riding badly, or I'm unfit, the HT really brings that out. And by unfit, I mean like my core, arms, shoulders, all over fitness - not just zwifty pedalling.
If I'm fit and riding well, the HT feels great - I wonder why that's part of why they are so marmite. I do really need to ride clips on it too, but I don't find that too much of a compromise.
I am curious how my current hardtail would be on those some trails – I rode them on a 26” Cotic Soul with 140mm Fox 32RLs
I moved from similar Pipedream to Marin 27.5 on 2.3's, modern geometry, 4-pot brakes and dropper. It's easily as comfortable, despite being alloy. It's easily faster. Far more confidence inspiring.
Next bike will be 29er, 2.4's, wider rims and burly brakes again.
Seriously all this shittalk.
It's just another bike.
Some folks have always ridden hardtails and full sussers.
It's just like everything else.
The same but slightly different.
Just get on with it whatever you're riding.
“ I moved from similar Pipedream to Marin 27.5 on 2.3’s, modern geometry, 4-pot brakes and dropper. It’s easily as comfortable, despite being alloy. It’s easily faster. Far more confidence inspiring”
My hardtail in between the Soul and the Moxie was a Bird Zero AM 27.5 hardtail, probably fairly similar to your Marin, and the Moxie feels almost as big a step onwards in terms of speed and control.
Don't overthink it.
I'll ride a big old 180mm e-bike one ride and the next get on a decade old 26" HT. They are obviously noticeably different, but it's just riding a bike at the end of the day and doesn't take much thinking about
I've a Stooge and it is fantastic for an hour or two riding around my local trails (singlespeed, obviously).
I've a lightweight short travel full sus for long distance off-road and gaining me the odd KOM.
But my 150mm forked Hello Dave is by far the best bike I've ever ridden on steep technical trails. Yeah it's hardwork at times but I still love it. Nearly two years old and am really surprised that the rear rim has survived. I've a spare wheelset ready for when the inevitable happens.
I've mainly ridden hardtails over the years, have been on a full sus for over 5 years now for 'proper' mountain biking. I won't be going back to a hardtail for that, I hate riding a rear tyre at low pressure, they just feel squirmy and draggy to me, and I'm not a fan of the undamped suspension, it's akin to a pogo stick. It's lazy/shows poor technique I know, but one of the major benefits of full sus for me is grip on techy climbs, particularly when knackered towards the end of a ride, being able to stay seated or just hover a bit versus mashing the pedals and moving your weight around is a big win in terms of comfort and fatigue.
Depending on age but I found over 50 I need to keep riding the HT regularly but so long as I do it's great fun but if I stop for too long it beats the shit out of me.
YMMV, I'm old and don't do any exercise at all .. but I usually ride the HT way more than my FS or motorised bike. (3-4 times a week)
I just had a forced FS only for 6-7 weeks though and first ride I thought I was going to lose my teeth and eyeballs and the first 3-4 rides last week felt my quads and back taking a hammering. I also lost a bit of confidence
Part of it is line choice and part of it being an old unfit geezer but a weeks riding and I seem to be back in practice after a week.
Did a 55km, 1900m ride yesterday, and some winch and plummet enduro trails today in Hafren Forest.
My thoughts are, for long distance the hardtail is (unsurprisingly) more efficient than my 150/160mm full suspension.
My bum did feel a little tender, but not any more so than I think it would have done on the full sus.
Downhill, it’s great fun, but definitely gives more feedback than the full sus. If my body position is wrong then I very quickly start to get bounced off the pedals on the downhills. Similarly if I brake in a silly place, the back end gets super squirmy. Which is good, because it stops me comfort braking. Jumps and drops it encourages a full send approach, just because that makes them feel comfortable and smoother.
All in all, the same good techniques apply to riding it, but more so, as it’s less forgiving.
I’m looking forward to seeing how it feels to get back on my full sus after a few months riding the hardtail.
I’d be interested to know if rider weight makes a difference to comfort on an HT.
In my riding groups most are committed FS riders, but some will use an HT for longer more adventurous rides. They complain about feeling beaten up, which is something I don’t particularly notice.
It could be just because I only own hard tails. But I don’t feel any different after riding a hired FS. But I wonder if being a somewhat heavier (30kg) than most of them makes a difference. Relative weight difference to the bike meaning I’m not getting shaken about as much???
Seriously all this shittalk.
Just get on with it whatever you’re riding
Heretic!
If the geometry is like your full-sus then you don’t need to change much/anything else.
Yes and no. The head angle steepens as the fork compresses on a hardtail, but with a full suss bike, both ends go squish. This means that an already long TT on a modern hardtail (if it's doing the long, low, slack thing) will get *longer*.
I went from a Stache with slightly old school geo (but not that old school) to a Fuse M4 which has the same ETT as my full suss bike; I pretty much just swapped everything over. It wasn't a bad change at all - the Fuse just feels a lot more stable on the steep bits and a bit less fun on twisty bits. I like twisty bits, btw.
One other thing is that the forks I swapped over have the 'old' 52mm offset, and the Fuse uses 44mm offsets, so if anything the handling should be faster with the forks I was using.
The thing is: it's a bike you can ride offroad, and it's a bit harder to ride really smoothly on it than if you have a foot of travel at each end, which irons out lots of little mistakes. I remember going from a Mountain Cycles San Andreas that had sort of become my default bike back to my DeKerf about 20 years ago and having my hat absolutely handed to me by that bike on a fairly pedestrian trail, simply because I'd got a bit lazy.
Long and short, it might take a bit of getting used to, but a change is most definitely as good as a rest.