Saturday, January 9, 2010
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So having dual suspension is obviously going to give you more bounce and make it easier to ride over rough terrain, but what’s the flip side of it? The biggest one for most people is the cost. More moving parts, more springs and pivots are all going to add up quite quickly. In addition, due the pivot points which need to be strong enough to withstand the punishment routinely handed out by mountain bikers. This means that if you’re using the same materials, it’s going to be much heavier, or if you’re going to use more advanced materials, it’ll cost ya!
Apart from the cost, the thing with dual suspension is that every time you push down on the pedal, you'll bounce a little bit. This bounce (also called bob) is energy that you’re expending that isn’t helping you to move forward. It might not be much, but it adds up when every single pedal stroke, you lose a bit of energy. This occurs to a degree in hardtails as well, but it’s really an issue for dual suspension.
Hardtails are always going to be more robust, with a more rigid frame. The whole frame is welded together, so extra strength can be added at high stress areas. The more rigid the frame the more responsive the bike is going to be. But you‘ll feel the bumps a lot more and will tend to have the bike kick up at the back more easily. If this is happening all the time is can get really tiring. However, if the trails you’re riding are hard and fairly smooth, you’ll probably be better off with a hardtail.
On the other hand if you’re doing big drop offs and generally riding over really rough tracks with rocks and tree roots, the benefits of a dual suspension frame begin to shine. Dual suspension will help keep you in contact with the ground as you fly over roots and rocks. This means that you’re going to have a more relaxing ride and better control.
The design of a full suspension bike is radically different from the shape of the standard bike frame that you might be used to. This is a design feature that allows the rear wheel to move freely. In the last few years, there has been a huge variety of different approaches to achieving the same aim. To allow free movement of the rear wheel, while maintaining as much rigidity as possible. Some designs also have the bonus of making the wheel base longer as the travel in the rear suspension is used. This can be quite important as a shorter wheel base makes the bike less stable while a longer one gives better stability.
Early designs, which kept quite close to the normal design, had a distinct disadvantage. As the rear wheel moved up the wheel base would become significantly shorter. Over time, different designs were developed that changed the pivot point which improved the stability. What we really want is for the wheel to move up and down, rather than in an arc. So more often these days designs have two pivot points which make it closer to a pure vertical motion with only a small amount of curve in the travel of the wheel.
Many riders have at least a hardtail and a full suspension bike. They ride one or the other depending on the track they are going to be riding on any particular day. So, it's not really a case of one being better in every case. More often these days you can buy rear suspension frames that you can ‘lock out’. This means that you can stop the rear suspension from moving with the turn of a knob. So you can get the benefits of a hardtail and a full suspension in the same bike. However, weight is always a factor and if you spent an equal amount of money you’d get a much lighter, stronger hardtail.
So at the end of the day, it really comes down to the type of riding that you’ll be doing most. There’s no point having a great heavy downhill beast that is too heavy to get up the track that you’re riding every week. The right mountain bike gear makes your riding easier and so much more fun
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