So who else wants to go back to a hardtail?

Ron

Well-Known Member
Been riding a Trail429 for over a year now. Sold my 2015 SIR9 back in March before anything bad happened to the frame. And all I want now is to dump the full susp and go back to a hardtail. The full susp does have many pluses but I really just want a simpler way of life again.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I’m not speaking from experience, but modern trail Hardtails seem to be super capable and bring some of the benefits of the FS.

Speaking from experience, I also had a Trail 429 and didn’t really like it that much. I think the low end fox shock on the back held it back. Not sure what you have…. But The bike just felt way too burly for only having 120mm of travel on the back.
It’s near impossible to demo a bike but taking another FS for a spin may open your eyes. But a cool new modern hardtail is also a good option.

Just stay away from fat bikes, they’re for people who have given up and are one step away from an E Bike. (I’m joking. Really I am).
 

Ron

Well-Known Member
I’m not speaking from experience, but modern trail Hardtails seem to be super capable and bring some of the benefits of the FS.

Speaking from experience, I also had a Trail 429 and didn’t really like it that much. I think the low end fox shock on the back held it back. Not sure what you have…. But The bike just felt way too burly for only having 120mm of travel on the back.
It’s near impossible to demo a bike but taking another FS for a spin may open your eyes. But a cool new modern hardtail is also a good option.

Just stay away from fat bikes, they’re for people who have given up and are one step away from an E Bike. (I’m joking. Really I am).
The Trail429 I have ordered in early 2020 from Pivot. Bike is an XO1 version.

I understand what you mean about trying other full susp. Hopefully in the future demo days come back. I have seen Pivot doing demo days, but that is out west. I would love to try the new Blur TR. That I feel balance more towards my XC roots. I love climbing hills. I have said before that I really only like going downhill so I can climb another hill.
 

Ron

Well-Known Member
If your saying you only want one bike your doing it wrong 😉

You just need to add a hardtail then a fatbike then ebike then a moto, stop with the subtracting 🤣
It is not so much as subtracting as transferring. I know from other posts it sounds that way. But that is more of a temporary fix till the industry opens more and more options are out there.

The end game would be 3 hardtails. 1 trail fun, 1 leaning towards XC climbing and a singlespeed. The XC would actually be the last purchase. Short term is a trail geared hardtail and a singlespeed for fun riding days.
 

Jmann

Never gonna let you down.
I ride my hardtail more than my full sus. I love the predictability of it when climbing, I’m not a fan of suspension movement when climbing technical trails. Less pedal strikes with the hardtail. Although I have gotten my full sus dialed to a point where I’m ok with it.
Everyone’s different, you need to do what works for you.
 

rick81721

Lothar
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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I love my Trail 429. There’s no reality where I see replacing it with a hardtail but your stated mission of climb first descend second is the opposite of mine.

We would be a great combo at the DH park. You ride bike up while I take the lift. At the top I’ll take the bike and you can take the lift down.

In all seriousness the 429 is not meant for fast climbing. I love this bike but I don’t race anymore.
 

knobbyhead

Next off the Island.
Been riding a Trail429 for over a year now. Sold my 2015 SIR9 back in March before anything bad happened to the frame. And all I want now is to dump the full susp and go back to a hardtail. The full susp does have many pluses but I really just want a simpler way of life again.
Keep the trail429 and get a niner sir ss.
 

shrpshtr325

Infinite Source of Sarcasm
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I have both. Bought the hardtail after a year of being exclusively on my fs bike, needed to scrsstch the itch but i still ride the fs alot more than the hardtail, even tho i got a pretty capable 'trail' hardtail
 
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robcleary

Well-Known Member
I kinda feel the sentiment of wanting to go back to hardtails. I love my Jeffsy but at times it'd be nice to have a lighter bike with a bit less "monster truck" feeling. I have an old 26" Marin XC hardtail and whenever I pull it out I love the scalpel feeling when riding tech.

Buuuttttttttt that bike's age is showing. It's a 2010 so it's missing a lot of modern amenities. Dropper is external and nearly broken. Brakes are organic and overheat pretty quickly at White Clay. Drivetrain is a 3x9 and not clutched, so it's constantly flopping around and jumping gears occasionally. And the frame geo is old enough that I'm not sure it's worth putting a lot of money into upgrading.

So yeah, newer trail hardtail absolutely. But old af Marin, maybe not.
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
I like having both - or three in my case: fairly light trail full squish; somewhat portly hardtail; do anything enduro full squish.

Maybe some day I'll get a super-light XC hardtail again, but it will have to wait until I have more storage space, as right now I'm not willing to give up any of the current quiver.
 

Victor I

aka Ridgehog
I ride my hardtail more than my full sus. I love the predictability of it when climbing, I’m not a fan of suspension movement when climbing technical trails. Less pedal strikes with the hardtail. Although I have gotten my full sus dialed to a point where I’m ok with it.
Everyone’s different, you need to do what works for you.
Same happened to me. Got my Ibis hardtail in October and have to find reasons to ride my Hightower. I hate climbing (not slow, just hate it) and a hardtail makes the climbs much easier. As to downhill, I’m actually faster on some segments on my hardtail than my FS, as more clearance in tight turns due to no squat. One issue I have encountered is that I already had to have my i9 factory rear wheel rebuilt after only 8 months of riding it aggressively in tech. Minimal issues with my FS as it’s obviously built for riding chunk so everything is a compromise.
 
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goldsbar

Well-Known Member
Just like all bikes, HTs have come a long ways in capabilities over the years. IMO, most of the improvements in bike design have come from relatively simple geometry and wheel size changes. I had a Sir9 rigid until the frame broke years ago. Lots of fun and great to mash up certain climbs. My subsequent Stache was far more capable. A bit unfair as that bike has giant 29+ tires and the added front suspension. DH times not far off my 120 FS (granted, which is more to the poppy XC side than the trail side of things).

Problem is when you start pushing a HT and start making some mistakes, you really feel them. Drops over 6" just aren't fun (I know, BMX guys jump off of roofs, yada yada). Hit a square edge at speed and it feels like the rear triangle is about to rip off.

Let's just say 95% of my riding is on the FS. It does everything better at a mere 3x the cost.
 

one piece crank

Well-Known Member
Problem is when you start pushing a HT and start making some mistakes, you really feel them. Drops over 6" just aren't fun (I know, BMX guys jump off of roofs, yada yada). Hit a square edge at speed and it feels like the rear triangle is about to rip off.
This generally comes from riding FS. If you never left HT riding you would ride your lines so you don't feel like the rear triangle will rip off.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Been riding a Trail429 for over a year now. Sold my 2015 SIR9 back in March before anything bad happened to the frame. And all I want now is to dump the full susp and go back to a hardtail. The full susp does have many pluses but I really just want a simpler way of life again.
Where do you ride?

I like to pick the bike for the trail. Hartshorne, hardtale. Ringwood/Allamuchy/Mahlon full suspension.

If you love climbing get a SS, they are light and force you to maintain a cadence pedalling up, regardless of your gear...there's no easy spinning uphill.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
the 429 is not for you. If you want to stick with a good climbing FS, you need to look at the pure XC Bikes (blur is somewhere in the middle). Otherwise, just get a hard tail.
 

TJYeti

Knows about bikes
I'm on ebay regularly looking for an early Yeti ARC 29er hard tail. Of course they were available and a dime a dozen when I didn't want one. When the right one comes along big stable change. Sell downhill bike, Intense 5.5 becomes downhill bike and ARC becomes trail bike. I'm sure this sounds like crazy talk to younger members, but I grew up bmxing in the 80's, I'm admittedly to old to do it now, but back then my PK Ripper would have been my mountain creek bike.
 
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