Mountain Biking - Hardtail vs. full suspension PLEASE

Hey all, after my first year of college, I decided I needed a decent (that is, above department store quality) bike to get around north Portland and out to Forest Park on the weekends. I need to hear some of the strengths and weaknesses of both hardtails and fullsuspension bikes to help me decide which way to go with.
I plan on mostly trail riding, and although I am not brutal by nature, I'd like to know my bike will still be my friend when I finish school.
I'd also like to hear some words on components, especially shimano vs. sram and rochshock vs. RST vs. whatever is below that.
Finally, is it possible to find any better way to buy than the local bike shop, such as factory direct?

Welcome to the forums!

Quite a few questions, I’ll try to answer the best I can. First off, you need to set a budget for you bike. What can you invest? You can find some great hard tails for under $500 if you look around.

If your going to be riding on the roads 80% of the time, go with a hard tail, you may take some punishment on the trails, but the pay off will be with the weight, and efficiency on the roads. If you were only going to be using the bike off roads, i would defiantly recommend a full suspension bike. However you will end up spending more money, the bike will weigh more, and you will generally have lower quality parts for the same price.

I am a fan of shimano, I have a full XT / XTR groupo on my Mtn bike (FS Gary Fisher Joshua X0 (1996 model), a LX groupo on my commuter bike (that hasn’t been used for over a year, giant frame, 1" slicks, no suspension at all), and full Dura-Ace on my road bike, my latest love. I have never liked the feel of grip shift, so never gave sram a 2nd look. However you may love it, mtn biking is very much an individual sport.

As for suspension, you get what you pay for, RockShox makes great forks, and are reasonably priced. If you can find last years model, go for it, you may save 40% or more. I have only used the RST shocks once, they came on my giant. They worked great, for a month. I ended up changing the fork for a stiffy fork off a really old mtn bike. That alone shaved 3lbs from the bike.

And where to purchase? Find a LBS you trust. Window shop a few local shops. Ask them questions, talk to there mechanic. Tell them what your looking for. Visit as many shops as you can. Some may have great prices, but bad service, or visa-versa. Others may have great service, but a horrible selection. You want a shop that can fit you to a bike. Not fit a bike to you. Ride as many bikes as you possibly can, and make sure you buy one that fits you. Don’t plan on purchasing your bike this week, it may take a few weeks to find what your looking for.

Before you step foot into the shops, do some research. This is a good start, you may want to spend an hour or two reading some old threads on the forums. There’s quite a bit of helpful information here.

Let us all know what you decide. :)

I was riding a full suspension before my current hard tail.

Personally I think full suspension for non-hardcore riding is just a waste of money. Furthermore it adds too much unnecessary weight to your bike. Frankly speaking, the rear sus doesn't make that great of a difference unless you are jumping off from some rock when the sus absorbs the impact.

I will recommend a hardtail, and perhaps you can use the difference in cost to upgrade your parts, for eg, the fork and the whole gear system. You can invest on disk brakes too.

I love the hardtails, better feel for me. I ride mostly xc and have tried full suspension and always go back to the hardtail. I would definantly want full suspension if i was riding gnarly trails with big drops, but for my standard xc riding the hardtail has a better feel.

If you want the bike for transport as well as fun, get a hardtail, but get one with threads for rack fittings. Even if you dont use a rack most of the time, they will come in handy sometime. If you ever want to do a tour or century ride, or just the weekly shopping by bike, those little threaded holes make the difference between can and cant.

Personally unless you're going to be using the bike mainly for rough off-road work I'd stick with a hard-tail, they make a great all purpose bike (as MichaelW says look for eyelets though).

Component wise, I've got a mixture of SRAM and Shimano, and I couldn't say one was a lot better than the other. I like Gripshift, so my shifters and rear derailleur are SRAM but my front mech, cranks and hubs are Shimano. Brake wise I use SRAM 9 v-brakes, having not been impressed with a friends Shimano XT's, but for levers I'm quite happy with Shimano Deore. Both companies produce good quality components, as do most o the other manufacturers out there e.g. Avid brakes, Hope hubs, RaceFace bits...

Fork wise RST don't have a great reputation, Marzocchi and Pace have excellent reputations with Manitou and Rockshox having mixed, but generally positive reviews.

Richard

If you go with a FS XC bike you will tack on a huge amount of money to the cost of the bike. Personally, I ride a rull suspension bike (Specialized Stumpjumber FSR XC), but that's because I ride rough trails almost daily. If you are on a road & have a rear shock that does not lock you will curse it riding up hills. When you get a good amount of torque on the chain, I don't care how much pressure you have in the rear shock, you'll feel it and not in a good way.

Hardtails are fine on most trails though. There are plenty of times when I wish I had a hardtail. There are more times when I'm glad I've got a FS though.

As far as the front shocks, I don't even see a comparison between RST and Rock Shox. You get RST on really low end bikes. I'm not a big fan of the Rock Shox either. You should look at Answer/Manitou and Marzocchi. Don't get me wrong, Rock Shox are great shocks, especially for the kind of bike that you're getting. I have Duke XCs on my bike, but that's just because I can't afford anything else right now. (Because I bought a full suspension bike and paid so much @#% money for it)

Do you have a used bike shop around, by any chance?

I can only agree to the posts above....stick with a hardtail. I've tried out several high end FS bikes (Manitou, Specialized, Intense). Even though you can hammer down hills faster and feel more secure you will notice a lot of energy wasted going uphill. My neighbour bought himself a cheap FS a year ago and boy was that a piece of "§&% to ride. My advice: Try to get a decent HT frame. If some of the components aren't top notch you can always upgrade later.

I use Gripshift + SRAM rear derailleur, hydraulic brakes and otherwise a mixture of LX and XTR. Before you decide to use Gripshift take the bike for a spin. With Gripshift it's either love it or hate it :)

Finding the right kind of shox is quite hard. RockShox, Answer and Marzocchi have all got decent "lower" cost models. I prefer the Manitous but this is just my opinion :D
Try looking for last year's models.

Hope this was of some help.

Thomas

You have come to the right place. You can distill your choice to two points ... maintenance and money. If you don't care about either one, buy a quality FS bike. I have gone back to a steel hardtail after riding a Klein Mantra, the constant maintenance was a drag and Kleins snap like dry twigs. Of course, I have ridden a bit in and about Portland and a hardtail would cover those smooooooth trails nicely.

stick with a hardtail. a good f/s is expensive and a lot of maintenance. i bought a f/s this year and it seems like i spend as much time maintaining it as i do riding. but i am pretty anal about keeping it cleaned and lubed. as far as components it is a personal preference. i like shimano over sram. but you may be different. go out and ride as many as you can and get the best fitting one to you. components can be upgraded later. if i may recommend a couple of lbs. check out fat tire farm in nw down the street from forrest park and bike-n-hike on grand (eastside). i have had good expereince with both of them. as far as used bikes i think sellwood cycle sells them. you might be able to get a good deal with a used bike. just my .02 let us know what you get .

rob

Hey everybody :)
Thanks for all the advice. I appreciate it and this is a pretty cool forum.
Looks like I oughtta go with a hardtail that I'll be able to upgrade fairly easily. A lot of the bikes I have looked at came with the RST or Suntour shocks, but that shouldn't be to hard to improve on if I decide I need something better. From my experience, I am getting to be kinda partial to shimano. The grip shifters just don't seem right
Everyone have a good summer and don't hurt yourselves (excessively, I mean):beer:

i wrecked on a HT when i was a kid and was not able to ride for a long time due to the enormous vibrations that went up to my spine. When i saw the DS bikes arrive on the scene, I tried several out and found one that i liked. I will never go back to a HT bike, you couldn't pay me to ride one, i will always buy DS bikes. And if they go out of style, i know that i still have plenty of parts to make mine last longer.

Yeah, there is no doubt that todays FS bikes are fantastic rides. You (the originator of the post) may also want to check out suspension seatposts .. they have come a long way. I know this thread is a bit old but....;)

Whats so bad with Rst???:crash:

I don't think most people are aware that RST makes high-end forks as well.