Hardtail vs Full Suspension

[petembike]

My full suspension had to go back to the factory for repairs and I was able to borrow a friends hardtail to ride for a couple of weeks. Man, I feel like I got hit by a bus in my mid-section. The full suspension(Santa Cruz Superlight) is so plush compared. The hardtail also did not have disc brakes which made the ride interesting to say the least. The one upside is that the hardtail forced me to really be on top of my steering on concentrate on where I was going. Cannot wait to get my bike back.

[joe]

I bought my first full suspension bike this spring and have been riding it since April. I took my old hardtail out last night and had a similar experience. The lack of a rear shock and disc brakes made a huge difference.

It made me really appreciate how much my new bike has been doing for me. I also decided that I need to keep riding my hardtail from time to time so that I don't lose the meager bike handling skills that I have.

[knucklebuste]

I hear ya fellas
When I bought this
http://webpages.charter.net/kfarrelldba/1.JPG
and then built this
http://webpages.charter.net/kfarrelldba/gack/117.JPG

I was ready to throw the hardtail in the rubbish. Now I'm starting to get the HT thing down. It's tough though after plowing everything in the woods over with 9" F+B on the Stink
Sux getting use to different bikes, but by the end of the day of day 1 on the HT, I started to get the idea of it.
knuck

[agkidrive2]

I've been riding a GT I-Drive 2.0 for about two years now. Very nice ride, smoothe, with almost five inches of travel front and rear. Then, I built up a superlight hardtail for racing, and after the first time I took it out on some real trails (that I normally ride the GT on) it kicked my ass. I had bruises on my ass for a week. But now that my GT is in the shop and the shocks sent out, i've been forced to ride the hardtail offroad whenever I want to go. While it may not be faster on the DH's, it feels like it, and when I get the GT back, I'll be way faster on the DH's.

[JimmyTwoTimes]

I hear yas. I'm still a newby with only a hardtail and I'm tired of whiplash and whacking my helmet on the handlebars when I land off a drop. I can't wait to save enough clams to buy a nice double squishy stinky for those drops....hardtail is best saved for urban and dirt jumps, at least in my mind....

Jimmy