In Cross Country Mountain bike Racing, one of the most widely discussed topics is what is the best bike to have. A Full suspension or a Hardtail. Before going into my opinion on these two different styles here is the difference between them.
A full suspension bike has a Fork and a shocks this makes your ride very smooth and absorbs your ride very well making it very easy on your legs and back, it has two suspensions one under your rear wheel and one under your front.
And a Hardtail is a bike that only has a front suspension, one under your front wheel and there is none under your rear wheel you absorb all of the hits on your legs.
Although it might seem obvious that a Full suspension bike is the way to go for riding around, because who doesn't want a soft ride. Well that is for just cruising and i agree, though when it comes to racing i think the rather oposite that a Hardtail is the way to go.
A hardtail is the optimal race machine, i personally have the top of the line hardtail. Equipped with a Rockshox sid World Cup, Nox carbon composite wheels with DT swiss 240s straight pull star ratchet hubs, XX1 eagle drivetrain and a carbon RockyMountain vertex hardtail frame. The bike comes in at 18.8lbs. This is a weight that is practically impossible to achieve you can't possibly make a bike lighter than that. And if this were not a custom built bike and out their for sale it would cost around $7,000. If you don't know much in the Mtb range you would think it is crazy. And i agree though you haven't heard of the cost of a full suspension bike with the same components. For a full suspension that has the same componentry you will be paying around $9,000. And your bike will weigh a good 4 pounds heavier.
Aside from price you'd think that 4 pounds isn't a big deal, but from my personal experience when you are trying to keep your first place during the race and are going up a mile steep grade climb you would wish you had the lightest possible bike. Aside from those extra four pounds a full suspension will drain your energy, yes you read that right. It will drain your energy.
You'd ask how does that work. Well think about it every single time you do one pedal stroke you push down. That push directs to your rear wheel, and then goes straight to your shocks. Therefore part of your energy and in exact 15% goes into pushing down your shocks. Whereas if you have a hardtail 100% of your energy goes into pedaling power, because their isn't a rear shocks.
Now that you are thinking it is a obvious question why can't you lockout your fork and shocks to make it easier on you when it comes to climbs. Well that is an option. Most of the front forks have a lockout, this means that you have to reach your hand forward to manually lockout the fork before the climb and after the climb, aside from that their is another way to lockout forks and that is called remote lockout and that is when there is a button you press on your bars that lockout your suspension and this is a much easier way that comes on some bikes that will save your energy. But if you don't have the remote lockout it is a $250 service to buy it and have it assembled for you. Frankly this is only the front fork, a front fork has two sides and it is easy to lock it out. Because by tradition the left side has the air cylinder and the right side has a lockout system. But in a rear shock their is only one cylinder. And yes designers have made a way to lockout the rear shocks, but you have to reach back and lock it out once again before and after climbs and most people crash while doing this so people try to avoid it in general. So most people have their energy drained during races because of the rear shocks. Frankly their are three companies that have tried to solve this problem. Two of them have a remote lockout going to your bars so you can remotely, lock it out. But if you don't have a Scott or Trek bike then this isn't a option for you, and those who have a remote lockout say its very hard and not reliable to lockout the way that the companies designed it. And for this case a company called specialized made a shocks with a brain which detects the surface and adjusts the shocks softness, though those who use it say it is 50% of the time not right and adds a extra pound.
So far the only thing that Full suspension bikes are making you have a hard time on climbs during races and fast sprints, because it drains your energy and you can't lockout or you are likely to crash, also the action of pulling your hand back to lockout your fork is time taking. In addition i forgot to mention that lockout is not the right word, the shocks do not lockout completely only you can adjust the stiffness of it, so it is impossible to make your full suspension as rigid as a hardtail. Overall the only think that full suspensions do is make your race harder.
That is just my opinion on full suspension bikes, but if you look at what the worlds best Cross Country riders ride, they ride full suspensions and the only reason they do is because their bike are fully custom built and weigh very little having the easiest way to lock everything out. In fact the worlds best rider bike costs $16,000.
Frankly if you talk somebody who likes full suspension bikes they will tell you that they are much faster at descending down hills because the rear Shocks absorbs the hits and you go flying through the corners and berms. And no doubt they are right, that is the only good point that they can make. And still by fact full races are won on climbs, because thats where the gap happens, and even if you take in fact that full suspensions are faster on downhill, when you do the math. A hardtail is still much faster and by far the best possible race machine.
