Hard vs. Soft

I've been riding off-road for several years now on a hardtail. I'm originally from the East Coast, but moved to the Midwest a couple of years ago. I ride the local cross-country trails (Palos and some weekend trips to surrounding areas in Wisconsin and Indiana) and race a little bit. I'm going to be in the market for a new bike soon and was wondering whether people would recommend sticking with a hardtail or switching to a full-suspension for riding in the Midwest. What do you ride off-road and why?

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Permalink Reply by Vilda on September 21, 2008 at 4:53pm

HAHAHAHA, yeah that's what you thought... :-)

h3 said:

I thought this was going to be a medical question :-)

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Permalink Reply by Tommie on September 21, 2008 at 5:10pm

Personally, if I ever were to return to mtb I would buy a hard-tail. I'd just rather have a light bike.

That said, most of the pros are using bikes with some suspension in the rear. Though pros are given gear and will ride almost anything, I'm quite sure that if rear sus. slowed them down, they would be riding hard-tails.

A similar question can be posed for disc brakes vs v-brakes. Are 90% of us faster using disc brakes? No. But pros favor the braking power and would rather have it while sacrificing the weight than the other way around. For them, better braking -regardless of weight- mean a better time.

Since more bikes are made out of CF these days I say buy a CF hardtail and make yourself believe that the "laterally stiff yet vertically compliant" nature of the frame is a rear sus.