Hard or Soft: How Mountain Bikers Shop for Tail

Gabriel    mountainbikingholidays, Pro Tips     Adventure, Adventure Sports, cycling, Downhill, mountain biking, MTB, off-road

Mountain bike technology has come a long way over the past 20 years. Once, bike manufacturers created stiff and solid frames that would roar down hill before people really knew what they were doing (no helmets, no body armour). This video gives you an idea of how rocky and risky downhill descents were on a rigid frame.  Then they decided to put motorcycle suspension on these bikes. And an industry was born!

It began with front-suspension forks. Companies like Rock Shox and Manitou couldn’t keep them on the shelves. Then bike manufactures had the idea to make each wheel float independently of the frame. Full-suspension bikes became fashionable and the market was flooded with them.

Today, the industry still makes a number of sharp and snazzy dual-suspension bicycles that make the heart pound (probably because many of them look like combat helicopters). The next time you go shopping for a mountain bike, get one with a lock-out front suspension. However, before you dump over 3K on the latest “full-susser,” consider these tips so you don’t wind up buying more bike than you can ride:

Weight

Rear suspension comes in a number of different designs and engineering. There is the single pivot, the four-bar, the DW-link, and a myriad of others. All of the extra metal, shocks and springs add significant weight to the bike. That’s a good thing if you’re into screaming descents and want to keep the bike on the ground. On the other hand, if you plan on doing hills, all that metal will make you work harder than you need to.

Price

All the metal and technology described above comes at a price. As in any cutting-edge industry, you pay for innovation. Consider your mountain biking ability, your wallet size, and whether or not you need the latest gadget fresh from the lab. The engineering changes every year, so you’d be better off buying last-year’s model today if you still wanted to keep up with the trends.

Agility

Full-suspension mountain bikes are slightly less responsive than hard-tails. Because of the float and extra weight, you’ll occasionally have to compensate quickly for delayed reaction times (i.e.: pull up earlier in front of a log, put your weight further back on a descent). I find that a front-suspension is all I really need for the twisty tracks surrounding my house. I know where the back tyre will be at all times.

Efficiency

Another nice characteristic of the hard-tail is the lack of “bobbing” or pedal inefficiency. Imagine that with each pedal stroke on a soft-tail, each time the crank comes down, you lose some of that power in the compression of the springs. That’s annoying, especially when you’re climbing uphill. A while back, Specialized introduced the Horst-Link suspension which was a great way to lessen the bobbing. Specialized patented ‘The Brain’ which is a type of cut-off for the rear suspension which prevents bobbing when pedaling the flats. Still, when I push the pedal to the ground, I want to make sure I’m going somewhere. And I’ll go hard.

About the author

Gabriel Del Rossi wrote 10 articles on this blog.

Gabriel is a professional tour guide and ski instructor. He has mountain-biked most of the trails in the French/Italian Alps and in New England in the US. When not outside, Gabe can be found writing for various on-line publications.

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