stevel610 

My first thought was that an inexpensive mtn bike would probably be pretty comfortable. Particularly as the springs age. If you like it, keep it.

But if you have only taken a few rides on the rigid, it won't feel as comfortable.

njkayaker

Again, an overly-vast majority of road riders on "expensive" bikes don't use such devices. That is some indication that such devices aren't really necessary.

Keep in mind that I don't care whether or not you (or anybody) uses them.

But the technique to ride a road bike more comfortably (and faster) requires a different technique than "steamrolling" over things with a full suspension bike.

It's not supposed to be. That "expensive road bikes" are fairly common suggests there's a reason why.

Rolla

You probably live in one of these:

Murmur1979

Yes! It's very comfortable!

Murmur1979

Yes, that's the gist of it after all. (I'm not ironic this time, thank you for your contributions anyway). I think habit is a lot important, I'm getting more used to the rigid bike day after day. You are right, it's not that bad after all!

njkayaker

You would have been better off not being "ironic" in your original post. It's yet another example of a style of new/inexperienced people waltzing-in being completely-puzzled by standard/normal things lots of people do. It's suggesting that the experts are somehow wrong and "you" are here to "set them straight". People think it's "clever" and "fresh" but it's tiresome.

Many of your posts (including the first one) in this thread are like this.

It's suggesting that people do think "expensive road bikes" are going to to be fairly compliant. No one thinks this. Dropping "expensive" is also a common way of saying people are "doing it wrong". People aren't spending extra for "expensive" road bikes to get more compliance (usually) The cost of a road bike is irrelevant: they mostly are equally compliant regardless of the price.

urbanknight

Says who?

Niner actually makes a full sus road/gravel bike. Of course, it's over $4k.

Also FWIW, sprung and cushy seats are not actually comfortable for long rides, and they definitely won't take the place of suspension. A suspension seatpost might help you.

Murmur1979

I re-read it and I don't think I was ironic at all (might have been in subsequent posts, in reaction to some replies). Maybe I worded it the wrong way. I concede the title was certainly exaggerated.
My feeling is that the attitude of newbies you bemoan, is mirrored on the other side by ridiculing or snarky replies which aren't often necessary. But that is, after all, common on all online forums.

njkayaker

There was another recent thread that had the same sort of "look at all the people with expensive bikes that I'm passing/more-comfortable on my cheap/old bike" that the mods deleted.

("Ironic" was the wrong word to use.)

What the "other side" is doing (in this thread) is not a "mirror". It's a consequence of the attitude of some newbies.

njkayaker

Kind of misleading.

https://www.ninerbikes.com/

It's not a "full sus" mountain bike (those are on another page on Niner's website).

Anyway, the "full sus" to make harder gravel easier . Not really to make road riding more comfortable. I bet it has lock-outs for the suspension (which means even Niner thinks is not always necessary or desirable).

urbanknight

I get what you're saying, but the end user can use it for whatever purpose they see fit. OP said the roads are bumpy. This would certainly smoothen it out.

njkayaker

People are free to do whatever they want. Even if it's a bad idea. Even if people on the internet say it's a bad idea.

The problem with this thread, anyway, was the OP thinking his reason made sense and what lots of other people did regularly didn't make sense (without any idea why those people did what they did). That is, he somehow knows more than experts when he's clearly missing stuff.

We have no idea how bumpy the roads are really (we just know he thinks they are bumpy). We have some idea that he thinks going over speed bumps is helped by having suspension. I risk expecting that you (personally) don't have much trouble dealing with them.

urbanknight

Yes, you are right overall. But I also think back to when I started commuting and chose to throw slicks on my K2 Razorback when my road bike would have done just fine. I certainly enjoyed the suspension even on the fair condition roads and didn’t mind losing 1/2 mph in speed.

Rolla

Yep, speed bumps and unseen potholes. In other words, “ten-cent problems.”

Ironfish653

Oh, it is. Faster, too

70sSanO

In the end it really doesn’t matter if the OP wants to ride an inexpensive full suspension mtb. It probably takes him wherever he rides and he doesn’t need anything more.

John

Jax Rhapsody

Aww, I missed some fun.

M Rose

those of us that ride with suspension seat posts and stems do so for a very specific reason… And my suspension seat post wasn’t even close to $250.

So why do I use a suspension seat post? My favorite gravel road is a 3% decline grade for about 15 miles. 10 of those miles has very bad washboards (cars can’t even go the speed limit on this section without vibrating onto the loose shoulder). Speaking of loose shoulder, the gravel is about 2’ deep on the shoulders, so almost impossible to ride through, or at least without wasting a lot of energy.

My buddy has a very nice spring saddle he let me barrow before I went to the PNW Coast Suspension Dropper Post; And while it helped a little bit to softener the ride (even after dropping to 15 psi in both tires) the spring travel wasn’t enough to dampen the ride enough to stay in control of the bike while riding at speeds over 8mph. Putting the 100mm Suspension seat post on has eliminated the effects 100%.

Now back in the 90’s I rode this road every day on a cheap department store rigid mountain bike. The difference between then and now… Back then I didn’t have back issues, knee issues, or shoulder issues. I was in a lot better shape. I rode my bike 4 miles a day to commute to school and back home, with who knows how many miles of riding around town racing the other kids as well as stunting the MTB showing up the BMX Freestyle guys. I could ride all day long off the saddle… I’m not back to that level of fitness YET.

njkayaker

The OP thinks what lots of other people ride is some kind of "wrong" without having any idea why they ride what they ride.

The OP is free to ride what he wants, obviously.

Internet discussions are never about that (the OP is free to ride what they want regardless of what the internet thinks).

Regardless, that he's free to do whatever he wants doesn't magically make it a good idea and, maybe, he'd be better off doing something else.

SurferRosa

Easy fix: just bring a mattress with you.




And watch out for traffic.

SurferRosa

That would be pretty weird if it didn't.

prj71

Also a bad idea. Geometry of the bike keeps constantly changing with those things.

Rolla

The bike's geometry doesn't change; the rider's position relative to the geometry changes. Moving your seatpost up or down or moving your saddle forward or back doesn't affect the bike's geometry at all -- imagine what geo charts would look like if they did.

But regardless, on-board changes to geometry are not necessarily a bad thing; any front- or full-suspension bike actually does have a constantly-changing geometry, and people seem to ride those without trouble.

Besides, most suspension posts have a maximum of 40mm of travel; in most conditions, only a fraction of that is actually used, and the motion is barely perceptible beyond the reduction of jarring bumps.

Try one sometime. I recommend the PNW Coast, as it doubles as a dropper. (Dropper posts don't change a bike's geometry either, btw.)

J_Chickles

After reading through all 3 pages of this and pondering whether the thread starter is sincere or not, i can only add one constructive suggestion

It would float over smaller road irregularities effortlessly, make credit card touring a breeze and with 5" of suspension, its almost as much as a modern mountain bike, but far more than a springer saddle !

and this particular one has hand grips that appear to be useful for additional purposes

urbanknight

Yeah, I was concerned about that originally, but people far more knowledgeable than me promised it’s not a problem.