My hardtail epiphany..

[hughjayteens]

......no, not a new Ellsworth, but rather my mindset after my first ride on a hardtail in 16 years!! I used to race when I was at school and had a shop supplied Fat Chance Wicked! with RS Mag 20s back in the day, but having given up cycling when I passed my test, the Fat Chance sat in my parents garage for for 11 years until I decided to start cycling again, but was sold on retrobike and I started riding again on a Klein Palomino. Roll forward to today and I have been riding a 160mm Maverick ML8 as my only bike for some time now, and whilst I know it is a bit much for most UK stuff, at 28lbs it is light enough and climbs fantastically for me to think I didn't need another bike.

Since selling my road bike a couple of months ago due to lack of use, I have been slowly building up a Whyte 19 Trail from the classifieds and today was the first day it was used in anger when I headed over to Swinley.

I think I have just redisovered why I enjoy this sport so much!

I love riding the ML8 and have been getting braver and fitter over the last few years, but the 19 has just brought a whole new level of interaction and involvement which just takes me right back to the old days. Apart from not having the confidence on it yet to get any big air, I don't think I would have been any quicker on any of the trails there on my ML8 and I certainly wouldn't have had the same experience.

My thighs and forearms were pumped up at the end of the long singletrack sections which I have never noticed before on the ML8 which is just such a capable bike that it makes it all a bit easy I think.

I don't think I'd take the 19 to Wales over the ML8, but as a winter bike it is just about perfect and I have fallen in love with biking all over again!

If you haven't ridden a HT for a long time (or ever) I really do suggest you give it a try.. It's mountain biking, but not as you know it..

Here's a couple of pics of the bike including a rather half assed jump pic from a guy there taking proper photos:

[Matt106]

I do love hardtails and thats all I own at the moment...However I borrowed a friends Commencal Meta to have a blast round Cannock Chase and loved it!

Ive never really ridden anything apart from hardtail so its a bit of the opposite for me.

[anonymous-user]

same here, hardtails all the way, i just love the way my Marin IFT makes every ride a proper event (and it's stonking fast uphill too ;-)

[a11y_m]

As much fun as full-sussers are, if I was told I could only have one bike it would always be a hardtail, no question. I'd say that my riding is split 85% hardtail, 15% full-susser which often makes me question why I have a full-susser in the first place. But both have their place.

That's a nice bike - I've been looking at the Whyte 19 Steel frame as an upgrade from my Genesis, but in the end bought an On-One 456 Summer Season. The Whyte would be a cracking frame but I couldn't justify the extra cost over the 456SS.