Rider Perspective: What do you choose: Dual Suspension or Hardtail?
On September 6th, 2014, I became the first woman to win a World Championship on a full suspension bike. What made me buck tradition in the women's field and choose the kilogram heavier full suspension over the lithe hardtail?
You could argue that I am a late adopter of change, I will seek out and gladly test new equipment, but it must prove itself to me before I jump on a band wagon and commit to it for racing. I was one of the last World cup racers to relinquish my nimble and success-proven 26 inch wheels in favour of 27.5 wheels. When I did, the bike industry had perfected geometry changes and offered a full performance line of 27.5 tires and forks.
When it comes to full-suspension bikes, however, I embraced their benefits years ago, deflecting the “too heavy for racing” commentary and embracing the big picture of overall performance. That commentary no longer holds much weight, literally, as most full suspension cross country bikes weigh in at under 23lbs (even with the now bigger wheels). Modern geometry and suspension have added amazingly stable pedalling platforms and well, they are just damn good bikes!
My love of a great full suspension aside, there are still many races that I will choose the hardtail, although admittedly fewer! Case in point, at the first round of the 2015 XCO World Cup in Nove Mesto Na Morave, Czech I raced a full-suspension and at round two,one week later, in Albstadt Germany a hardtail. My results were 4th and 3rd respectively, but the difference in results were due to legs rather than bike.
Racing on the fully at round one.
Hucking on the hardtail one week later at round two.
So why choose different rides? When I am looking at what bike to race I am asking myself what bike will allow me to perform at my best. I look at how my bike can help me climb fast, carry speed across flat rough sections, and descend like a mad woman. I choose the bike I feel will bring out the best in my riding on a particular course and which gives me winning confidence.
Many people see the full suspension as assisting with descending, but don’t realize their real race advantage lies in climbing and transitions. In XCO racing at least, the descents are such a small time portion of the race that yes you can lose a race with sloppy descending, but rarely can you win just by railing them.
The largest proportion of time spent racing will be on climbs. If the climb is nuanced with many roots, rocks and tricky maneuvers the full suspension is going to help you maintain traction and power delivery. The less energy wasted trying to save a mistake the more goes into going uphill quickly.
The World Championships course in Norway and the World Cup course in Czech have just such climbs. Both are perfect for a full suspension to excel and help you save energy. By contrast, the climbs in Albstadt are smooth and steep so that slightly steeper angled and lighter hardtail does the trick nicely.
On terrain transitions, the rougher they are, the more being able to sit and drive on a full suspension will help you carry your momentum. The more flat and hard pack the transitions the more amazing standing up and accelerating on a hard tail will feel. This is also where considering your riding style is important. If you are going to sit and spin regardless you might always be a “fully” fan. If you like to jump in and out of the saddle all the time you’ll likely gravitate to a hardtail or take the best of both worlds riding a “fully” with integrated remote lock out.
Long gone are the days where mountain bike races were just off-road road races and low weight, low front end and fast tread conquered all. I never witnessed these days, but have seen a definite increase in “man-made features” over the last 5 years. The full suspension can make learning these features easier, especially when you have 9 hrs of jet lag and 20 hrs travel in your body and just 3 days till you race. You want to learn the best way to speed down a rock garden or off a jump as soon as possible so that you can get on with your race prep.
The descents in Albstadt are pretty straightforward, go fast, corner well. A hardtail is a lot of fun here. In Czech, where the descents are much longer, gravity fed and root strewn with a couple rock gardens thrown in, the full suspension feels smooth as silk and maintains its momentum. The more you pump the terrain here, the faster you go and the faster you want to go. Did I mention I love this track? The full suspension makes me want to ride as fast here as the hard tail does in Albstadt.
This year both races were won on a hard tail because that’s what the best rider on the day chose. Despite what I feel the best bike for the course is, to win you still have to be the best rider, choosing the right bike for you just helps you bring out your best on the day.
In the end, bikes aside, the most important thing you can do is hone your skills and fitness to such a level you are equally happy on either bike. In 2014 I earned more wins aboard my hardtail, but in every great race, putting out a winning performance meant feeling 100% in sync with my ride and using it to find the most out of myself and the terrain.
-Catharine Pendrel
MENTIONS: @cpendrel / @orbea / @shimano / @foxracingshox
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Hardtails have changed, A LOT, & big wheels revolutionized them in a way I did not comprehend until recently. Even her XC race bike has 100x better geo than the bikes you & I started out with, & a good 120mm 29er hardtail, with good geo like a yelli-screami, is a whole world better all around bike than that race bike.
better all around bike compared to which race bike?
Furthermore: "big wheels make hardtails better."
is that really so hard to grasp?
Big wheels are not moot, just because you can buy a FS with them as well. People usually have two major complaints about hardtails: they're hard on your sit bones & lower spine, because there's no suspension to dampen impacts, & they lose traction because there's no suspension to keep the tire glued to the ground.
Big wheels help with hard tail pain, because they have more air volume for a given tire size, which provides some cushion. secondly, because they roll over trail chatter more smoothly, they don't transmit as much harshness to the rider.
Big wheels help with loss of traction, because their contact patch is bigger, again for a given tire size, which helps compensate for the tire not staying glued to the ground like on FS.
Do FS bikes gain from both those things as well? sure. It's one of the reasons you can get away with less travel on a 29er than on a 26" bike. but that's not the relevant question. the relevant question is: do these improvements, combined with the better geometry of a modern trail hardtail, make hard tails fun enough to consider, especially if you haven't ridden one since 26" hardtails in the '90s?
My opinion is that is does, which is why I made the argument in the first place.
If you are looking at spending less than $2000, go with a good hard tail.
no way i'd take my hardtail to a downhill trail or bike park anymore. just not worth it on the body. plus, the FS is faster on descents and can handle bigger drops. it's more fun
In contrast I just watched a buddy of mine go from a 160mm enduro bike to a 100mm FS full suspension (29er version of what Nino Shurter rides) and he has only gotten faster. Uphill and down.
When on the 29" HT, I must be 100% on my game or else I'll end up crumpled in a sorry pile of flesh somewhere down the trail.
When on the Entourage, I can ride relaxed, hitting the same lines with ease & in comfort, as the FS makes up for my lack of skill.
Not sure if you're answering questions, but.... do you see droppers making their way into XCO in a big way? I LOVE riding a HT with a dropper , but from an XC race perspective I see them as kind of a middle ground; they help descending a lot, but don't provide the traction benefits you talk about here. I doubt we'll see full suspension + dropper anytime soon (weight), but would hardtail riders adopt them? Or would they just take the small extra weight penalty and move up to FS in that scenario?
Nino opened up a HUGE gap on Julien on that last downhill at Albstadt... I just keep wondering how that would have changed if Julien could drop that seat lower. But it worked out okay for him in the end!
29" didn't exactly catch on for the world cups (compared to the US race series) initially , I remember an argument being that there is so much traffic on the course that you don't really need the advantage over rough stuff, you want something that is the lightest possible, and will accelerate the fastest to pass people when it opens up. But with the ridiculous features in world cup courses I think we will start seeing them soon.
It's really just a question of what order we accumulate them and how many credit cards it takes.
It's time for mountain bikers to stop arguing over little things like rear suspension, so that we can come together and use our strength in numbers to bring down our true enemy: the Boost standard.
Man, is that thing FUN! Raw, whippet fast and unforgiving but soooo rewarding. Would no ride it all the time? No. I was completely broken afterwards. But it sure is staying in the quiver and will be coming out more often. Even thinking of using it in the next Enduro event we have down here.
I actually agree with that idea, but there are other downsides to that. It's expensive, adds additional maintenance challenge, and complexity. Maybe they have a dropper post, lockouts, suspension dials, and pedals to get used to, on top of a flexible gear range to suit their fitness level and terrain. People budget too low when they start out. Cycling is really expensive, and being on crap masks the potential fun that riding has to offer. I imagine that I could lose all interest in riding if I were forced to ride crap. The main reasons I would agree is that the risk of injury is reduced, and they're less likely to make psychological walls in the form of virtually "insurmountable challenges", that will prevent them from feeling success. The anxiety that newbie riders get when they see something challenging is serious, and failing on it can create trauma that keeps them away, while success with a barely passing grade keeps them coming back, to improve on that.
When riders get the skills and fitness that makes things too easy for a FS (feeling of overkill), that's when you can go to a HT, or rigid, or singlespeed, to make things challenging again. Sad thing is, this is the opposite of what people intuitively think. With 10x the jet lag, would you even want to be out there on your bike, let alone a low end rigid that was recommended as a starter bike? IMO, they should use that money they used to *buy* a starter bike, to rent or "lease" a high end capable bike instead.
www.bikerumor.com/2015/06/04/world-cup-xc-pro-bike-check-rainbow-orbea-oiz-of-world-champion-catharine-pendrel
Something like a Tallboy/Spearfish/Thunderbolt/Camber, and an Enduro/Range/Slash.
just kidding, they look fun. like a moped.
The author of this article is a professional mountain bike racer. If you don't want to hear the opinions of a professional mountain bike racer, as they relate to professional mountain bike racing at the World Cup level, don't open the article.