Front travel - Full suss vs HT
Discussion
I was reading the "what MTB for £1,000" thread where the OP stated he wanted a hardtail with 120mm lockout forks for trails riding with some downhill.
My immediate thought (based on my stable of 150mm front & rear and 85-115mm front) was that I'd want rather more travel before contemplating anything more than light to moderate trails riding, and certainly before anything with any element of downhill to it.
Looking on a few websites though, it seems as though hardtails with much more than about 120mm travel are a bit of a rarity, whereas these days most full sussers seem to be 140-160mm? Is there a reason for this? Is it just possible to put more travel on the front of a full susser without messing up the geometry too much because the back also compresses?
My immediate thought (based on my stable of 150mm front & rear and 85-115mm front) was that I'd want rather more travel before contemplating anything more than light to moderate trails riding, and certainly before anything with any element of downhill to it.
Looking on a few websites though, it seems as though hardtails with much more than about 120mm travel are a bit of a rarity, whereas these days most full sussers seem to be 140-160mm? Is there a reason for this? Is it just possible to put more travel on the front of a full susser without messing up the geometry too much because the back also compresses?
First off, anything remotely DH i'd want a FS.
if they mean a trail that is downwardly heading anything goes, fully rigid etc.
If i went back to a HT i think 120 is about right unless it was a heavy hitting bike like a 456 or a piglet, then i'd be putting a 150 in it.
Full sussers have a guide line of fork travel just as much as a HT, go too big and you may upset its handling. I have a Covert running at its maximum 160mm with 140mm rear, handles the DH much better but for faster around the trails i wish i could take it down to 140mm front.
if they mean a trail that is downwardly heading anything goes, fully rigid etc.
If i went back to a HT i think 120 is about right unless it was a heavy hitting bike like a 456 or a piglet, then i'd be putting a 150 in it.
Full sussers have a guide line of fork travel just as much as a HT, go too big and you may upset its handling. I have a Covert running at its maximum 160mm with 140mm rear, handles the DH much better but for faster around the trails i wish i could take it down to 140mm front.
I can't say I have noticed the disparity between full suspension and hardtail bikes when it comes to suspension travel, If you know where to look you can still find a bike with pretty much any travel you like between 100 mm and 160 mm for hardtails, and 100 mm and ~230 mm for full suspension.
As for how much travel is advisable for downhill stuff, it really depends on what you define as downhill, but also on the geometry of the bike.
I'd rather take a hardtail with long front centre, slack angles and 150 mm travel forks down a DH track than a steep and short trail bike with 160 mm front and rear travel
edited to add: you are right that there a billions of 140 - 160 mm travel full suspension bikes around at the moment though, as these are the bikes that are do anything, go anywhere sort of things. They have enough suspension to take on most downhill tracks, but are also light enough to pedal back up. anything with much less or much more travel is getting to be a specialist bit of kit
As for how much travel is advisable for downhill stuff, it really depends on what you define as downhill, but also on the geometry of the bike.
I'd rather take a hardtail with long front centre, slack angles and 150 mm travel forks down a DH track than a steep and short trail bike with 160 mm front and rear travel
edited to add: you are right that there a billions of 140 - 160 mm travel full suspension bikes around at the moment though, as these are the bikes that are do anything, go anywhere sort of things. They have enough suspension to take on most downhill tracks, but are also light enough to pedal back up. anything with much less or much more travel is getting to be a specialist bit of kit
Edited by deadtom on Thursday 25th June 18:17
Kermit power said:
Just to add a bit more to this, there are currently 143 full suss bikes on CRC, of which 113 (79%) have 130mm or more front travel.
Flip over to hardtails and they've got 100. A whopping 69 of those are 100mm travel, 20 are 120mm and only 11 are more than that.
interesting statsFlip over to hardtails and they've got 100. A whopping 69 of those are 100mm travel, 20 are 120mm and only 11 are more than that.
I guess full suspension is getting so good these days that even relatively affordable ones are now actually worth having, so people are moving away from hardtails unless they want something seriously light (and therefore probably an XC bike with short travel)
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