@Justin White
It's all good, it’s just discussion, although tbh I think you’re misinterpreted what I said. To start with, if you’re sending a beginner/new rider down a trail where they are “holding on for dear life” then I’d say that you’re doing a pretty poor (and unsafe) job of teaching someone to ride. The context of the article seemed to indicate that the riders in question where new to mtb’ing and that budget was a concern and both of those things factored into my responses. Riding for myself is a different story tho and holding on for dear life is a big part of what makes thing fun. But in my case it’s done under some sense of control with some decent trail skills to back it up and it's not completely out of control by someone who’s just learning to ride.
I also did not say that some “skills can only be learned on a hardtail” – that’s completely fabricated bs on your part. Same as the suggestion of “holding on for dear life.” If you go back and look at what I wrote and the context of it, it’s geared towards the idea that new riders will learn better trail skills on a HT because a FS bike is going to masking or covering up their mistakes and giving them less feedback. That’s why I think a newer rider (who will be riding slower on easier trails) is going to get better trail feedback or a sense of what’s happening on the trail – even on a fully rigid bike. It's also why I think they'll pick up trail skills faster. For example locking up the rear on a HT is way different than on a FS. Riding a HT helps you learn to be smoother.
When I ride my hardtail the line choices are different and the way I work the bike with the trail is different – I’m engaged differently with the trail. On a FS bike I know I can take gnarlier lines, cheat lines and faster lines because I know the suspension is going to suck up a lot of the ugliness that I would feel on the HT. It’s not that I think one is more fun than the other - that’s a question I can’t answer - but I do know that both styles of riding are fun, just different types of fun. You say that you “don't really ride any different on HT vs FS” but also say that on “the HT I am forced to always pretty much completely soak up big rear wheel hits or risk breaking things." Well, that’s riding differently. My guess would be that if you adjusted your riding style on the HT a bit more then you might not have to work so hard to soak up big rear wheel hits and might even enjoy the ride a bit more. Or maybe not, I don’t know, but there’s only one way to find out.
At the end of the day for a rider on a lower budget (as seems to be the case in the article) more often than not they are going to be able to get a better bike by going the HT route than the FS route. A quick look at used (or new) bike prices will tell you that. A bike in better shape is probably going to be less headache and easier to use on the trail, and maybe even be more fun to ride (gasp!) because of it. IMHO a new rider shouldn’t be flying hell bent on personal destruction down the trail. A responsible friend would hopefully take the time to spend an hour or so teaching their newbie friend the basics of trail skills before they even get into any trail riding. In fact, the teacher may not even be riding that day, just walking alongside their student/friend, watching what they are doing and correcting as they go. There’s a big gap between what I’m thinking with helping a friend get into the sport and what you described earlier. Finally, a good afterthought is that if the friend just doesn’t get hooked on mtb'ing then they haven’t spent extra money on an FS bike and they can easily turn the HT into a city bike or gravel cruiser if they do want to get outside and pedal a bike around. I don't think I can explain things any further than that, but if you have a question feel free to ask.
March 7, 2022, 8:22 p.m. - Mark
@Justin White It's all good, it’s just discussion, although tbh I think you’re misinterpreted what I said. To start with, if you’re sending a beginner/new rider down a trail where they are “holding on for dear life” then I’d say that you’re doing a pretty poor (and unsafe) job of teaching someone to ride. The context of the article seemed to indicate that the riders in question where new to mtb’ing and that budget was a concern and both of those things factored into my responses. Riding for myself is a different story tho and holding on for dear life is a big part of what makes thing fun. But in my case it’s done under some sense of control with some decent trail skills to back it up and it's not completely out of control by someone who’s just learning to ride. I also did not say that some “skills can only be learned on a hardtail” – that’s completely fabricated bs on your part. Same as the suggestion of “holding on for dear life.” If you go back and look at what I wrote and the context of it, it’s geared towards the idea that new riders will learn better trail skills on a HT because a FS bike is going to masking or covering up their mistakes and giving them less feedback. That’s why I think a newer rider (who will be riding slower on easier trails) is going to get better trail feedback or a sense of what’s happening on the trail – even on a fully rigid bike. It's also why I think they'll pick up trail skills faster. For example locking up the rear on a HT is way different than on a FS. Riding a HT helps you learn to be smoother. When I ride my hardtail the line choices are different and the way I work the bike with the trail is different – I’m engaged differently with the trail. On a FS bike I know I can take gnarlier lines, cheat lines and faster lines because I know the suspension is going to suck up a lot of the ugliness that I would feel on the HT. It’s not that I think one is more fun than the other - that’s a question I can’t answer - but I do know that both styles of riding are fun, just different types of fun. You say that you “don't really ride any different on HT vs FS” but also say that on “the HT I am forced to always pretty much completely soak up big rear wheel hits or risk breaking things." Well, that’s riding differently. My guess would be that if you adjusted your riding style on the HT a bit more then you might not have to work so hard to soak up big rear wheel hits and might even enjoy the ride a bit more. Or maybe not, I don’t know, but there’s only one way to find out. At the end of the day for a rider on a lower budget (as seems to be the case in the article) more often than not they are going to be able to get a better bike by going the HT route than the FS route. A quick look at used (or new) bike prices will tell you that. A bike in better shape is probably going to be less headache and easier to use on the trail, and maybe even be more fun to ride (gasp!) because of it. IMHO a new rider shouldn’t be flying hell bent on personal destruction down the trail. A responsible friend would hopefully take the time to spend an hour or so teaching their newbie friend the basics of trail skills before they even get into any trail riding. In fact, the teacher may not even be riding that day, just walking alongside their student/friend, watching what they are doing and correcting as they go. There’s a big gap between what I’m thinking with helping a friend get into the sport and what you described earlier. Finally, a good afterthought is that if the friend just doesn’t get hooked on mtb'ing then they haven’t spent extra money on an FS bike and they can easily turn the HT into a city bike or gravel cruiser if they do want to get outside and pedal a bike around. I don't think I can explain things any further than that, but if you have a question feel free to ask.