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I feel I can get that buzz of being right on the edge of control without it being quite as high speed\consequence IMO.
I've got a full sus and hardtail, and honestly I have more fun on the hardtail and ride it 95% of the time.
And it's not that much slower when you really start pushing it.
P.s. it's great when you out-ride you're mates who are on FS on your HT 🙂
I prefer the feeling of riding a hardtail, the feeling you get being connected to the backend. If you can pump properly there is a lot of speed to be gained when riding one. If anyone tells you that it’s best to take the smoother line on a hardtail they are lying, gnarly lines are fun.
It's my experience that whilst super slack head angles are associated with steep tech stability, that benefit comes through on a hardtail as much as it does on an FS. If the rest of the frame is sorted, climbing ability is unaffected and tech climbing competence can actually be boosted.
You end up with a frighteningly competent hardtail for just riding about on. For sure it wont feel 'responsive' like some of the spastic bambis of the the past, but assuming because its slack its trying to replicate FS performance is kinda missing the point - IMO, this is a paradigm shift in case-use for hardtails when compared against their predecessors, but this realisation seems to be a pretty slow to take since HTs are starting to become a more scarce breed and one doesn't really get it without riding one for a bit.
I think that it’s a myth that long, low and slack bikes are only good for going downhill fast.
I switched to a decent hard tail because for day to day life it can do everything. It tows the kid’s trailer so I don’t need my road bike, it rides up and down and along pretty well so I don’t need and XC bike and/or a Gravel bike, makes pump tracks fun so I don’t need a BMX (to be used once or twice a year) and it makes descending great fun as well.
I haven’t got the longest or slackest hard tail (Reach-445mm, HA-63.5*, RC-440mm, SA-74.5* and 29 wheels, but it gets the job done and is super fun around the Westcountry and FOD where I do 90% of my riding. If I want to go big in the Alpes (fingers crossed) then I’d just hire something for a week for now. Unless it was off piste or somewhere like Tignes which doesn’t have the braking bumps of Morzine and Les Gets.
For the next year or so all my time and budget is being spent raising 2 year old twins so having a quiver isn’t really an option nowadays.
PS - bike riding is all about fun unless you’re racing
Added a dropper today ... only a 125mm as the 11yr old needs to be able to ride it so it's almost on min insertion.
A brace of em here. Mine is on the right. 150mm fork, +1 headset so 64.5 HA. 2.6 tyres. She is a rowdy one for sure.
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Had a great day out on the Long Mynd from Marshbrook. Climbed and descended really well.
For comparison - my old Sov from 2010ish. Not LLS but always loved a hardtail.
My DeeDar, a few years old so not as LLS as the latest crop, starting off with XT 1x11 it now has XTR, 160 Pikes and since the photo a Pro 4/Arc 30 wheel set with tan wall minions - 2.5 DHF/2.4 DHR II and a set of gum Deathgrips. A few purple accents were promoted by the Muc Off valves and include reservoir caps and more caps on the E4/X2 brakes and grip collars.
I’m contemplating a brown saddle to go with the tanwalls and grips for full on hipster points. Colour coordination is a disease I tell you