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A reasonably fit 47 yr old, riding my 100mm rock lobster mostly, and my 5 not enough, mainly due to manky muddy trails and the HT set up with mudX's. A biggish ride yesterday am up the Speyside way from tomintoul to Glenlivet and back and was totally beaten up in the evening. My typical HT ride is 2-3 hrs round mugdock and I normally have the Orange for away trips, but on hols with family this week.
Anyway, had been considering various options, from no changes, to chopping in the rock lobster and the orange for a new Soul, to maybe something else and have realised that I am probably to old and achy for a hard tail as my only MTB 😛
So only thing now is justifying to the wife an upgrade on a 5 yr old 5 ! Rock lobster will stay till it breaks...
Carbon seatpost? You've chosen HT and lower maintenance. And ibuprofen prophylaxis 😉
One of these. Tried one a while back. Very good and make a hardtail....... Soft.
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Yeah, have wondered about changing my 27.2 Thomson to something more flexy. The rock lobster is quite a flexy frame.
Tired - I went for the rioja version of pain relief 😀
What part of you is being beaten up?
Scapegoat - good point ! Pretty much all off it......I think I was on the wrong bike, but didn't have option of FS. I guess its more a case of me realising that getting rid of my 5 is maybe not the smartest at my age 😳
The other thing may be that you have got into the habit of sitting down through bits where you need to be on your pedals, and when you have been standing up I bet you feel it in your trunk and lower back! Core strength is key. I have FAI in both hips, but the right can be an absolute **** if I don't take pre-emptive painkillers. It's nice to ride the susser, as it [s]wafts me over the bumpy bits like a magic carpet[/s]err, I mean I can rag it senseless over the gnarrcore... but I make sure I still ride the HT so I [s]don't lose the rad [/s] don't get into any bad habits. 😀
A good seat can make all the difference. Something fat and not too heavy and you might not need the squishy seatpost. Slightly fatter tyres can also help, what size you run? I run 2.3's on my hardtail. Usually fat seats are not top of the range and so are cheap. I like cut away saddles. Best one I ever used was the cheap Specialized Body Geometry, but they don't do that one any more. Shame. Best seat ever. I now use Selle SMP TRK and Specialized Sonoma.