Your wife will love it, my wife picked up a mach 4sl 2 years ago, and it has turned mountain biking into something she enjoys in stead of tolerates. We have some pretty tame trails basically out our door, it used to be my wife would jump on the trainer to get an easy week night ride in, now she will head out on her mountain bike. Proud husband moment seeing her gladly jump out on the mtb solo.
Thatās some real pride no doubt! Always great seeing the significant others that can enjoy the same hobbies.
My wife is pumped about using the shotgun seat with the kids. I had one for my old mtb and our daughter, but eventually weāll be able to get our son (1 now) as well. Itāll be great if the daughter doesnāt outgrow hers and we can have them on both bikes for some family rides.
XC race Iām doing this weekend is looking like it could be pretty muddy. Rather than swapping tires on my XC wheelset, Iām thinking about using the wheels from my trailbike thats already setup with Rekons. XC bike has 180F/R rotors, but the trail bike is 200/180.
Should I grab a 180mm rotor to swap onto that wheelset or adapt the XC bike front brake to 200mm?
Especially if theyāre centerlocks, I think swapping rotors between Wheelsets is the easiest. Just have to remember that you probably donāt want to mix / match pad compounds so may need to clean / lightly sand rotor, maybe scuff pad surface if theyāre glazed, and then re-bed? Also may need to re-align caliper but need to do that in either case.
Not sure this is any easier than just swapping tires though.
Yeah problem is, XC wheelset is centerlock and the trail wheel is 6 bolt. Iāve never had too many caliper alignment issues swapping wheels on my roadbike, so hopefully donāt have much problem here. Definitely need to consider pad compounds.
Have you tried Rekons in the wet? This might belong in the Unpopular Opinions thread but I absolutely hate this tire in wet conditions. What are you running on the XC wheelset?
Recently switched to Dubnitol RR on the XC bike. Prior to that I only ran Rekons for years. I donāt love them in this kind of slippery mud Iām expecting, but Iām confident I can keep the bike right side up even if its a bit slower. I almost never ride in conditions like that outside of when it pops up in a race, so I donāt want to buy a dedicated mud tire.
Iām a hardtail guy, but I really dont think your right here. You shouldnt be choosing hardtail for performance. You can argue it can help your skillset, simpler maintaince, less to think about, but for the most part, your going to spend your time and money on parts that hopefully get you reaching into a some of the performance benefits of full suspension.
I for sure gave up speed in years I was fast, but chose a hardtail. Not really bummed about that, I wasnāt racing at the top edge of the sport. This year I got on my first XC(ish) FS frame since I snapped my Trek 6 or 7 years ago, its way faster, with more traction, and less of a beating on my body (ie fatigue).
Am I still getting excited about replacing the void my hardtail left, hell yes I am, but the reason isnt performance.
If it was me I would run the Dubnitals*
*Use at own risk.
I know everyone āfeelsā that the FS is faster with better performance yet outside of bike company marketing materials I really havenāt seen anything to indicate a FS provides this better performance. I am in the market for a new XC bike: as a science based website, can someone share an article you used to make the FS decision?
All I can find if people sharing there opinions and feelings with no hard data. In the meantime bike companies are charging us an extra $2-3000 for a shock and pivot bearing that cost them a tenth of that. Not being argumentative just honestly curious. All is see during races and group rides is the back end bobbing up and down, that seems like wasted energy to meā¦hence my intrigue. Thanks in advance.
It totally depends on the terrain IMO. To ride a hardtail fast on technical terrain (up and down) requires more skill and concentration than a full suss. At least in my experience, skill and concentration are in short supply when Iām close to max heart rate.
I race against people on hardtails who are much faster than me, and also when I raced on a hardtail I beat people on FS bikes.
I donāt think youāll find concrete scientific data to steer you either way and you seem to have made up your mind to buy a hardtail, so why not go ahead and do that?
How do you define performance?
Most people selecting an FS do it for the combination of ability to handle technical terrain and the reduction in fatigue over long courses.
The general consensus for measuring fatigue on long courses is RPE - which is literally feelings, so 
From your post it sounds like the bike companies shouldnāt get anything for the 2-3 year period they invest in designing, prototyping, testing? With full suspension the geometry and suspension kinematic are generally considered very difficult to design.
How much time have you spent riding one? For me, itās night and day difference on technical terrain. But I also didnāt grow up riding/racing mtbās, itās only been ~10 years starting in my mid 40ās that I started racing them. I still have the hard tail I started on, but it hangs in the garage because I find the fs much more fun, safe, and makes me a much faster and more confident rider. I still remember the first day a buddy let me try his fs, total game changer for me. Does a fs make me faster by compensating for my mediocre mtb skills? Absolutely. Could riding the ht more improve my skills? Probably. But Iām never gonna be Nino and I think most amateurs fall into the same category. And I canāt speak for why the vast majority of pros prefer fs, but results matter and they wouldnāt be riding fs if it wasnāt faster.
The information Trek released for the Checkout FS Gravel bike is probably pretty relevant to the conversation.
I agree with this, even if you argue that you could push out 1 lap at the same pace on a hardtail vs FS, which I think could be argued depending on the course, the benefits come later in a race.
That said, yeah, your right, Iāve never seen any good data. I do feel this is a case where you can use WC racers though, or maybe marathon racers is more usefull. Considering a number of them have choices, they are choosing based on performance. If anything I think what weāve mentioned about late race fatigue would be less of an issue for them, but they are still choosing the FS. Granted, there are likely scenarios where sponsors want them on a certain bike, but I still think you would see hard tails more if they were close in performance.
You mention big, cushy tires and rims, to me that means you understand the components and how they effect speed, wouldnāt you want more layers of adjust ability, that are able to be damped?
I cant believe Iām the one arguing for FS bikes, ugh, Iām usually on the other endā¦ That said, you ride buff fast trails, or just want to ride a hard tail? go for it! youāll get some extra kudos when you pass folks racing, and maybe a mental boost here and there when you think about how everybody else is on a āfancy FS bikeā.
There are lots and lots of youtube videos that debate this. Here is my favorite one about open and locked suspension and climbing a āsmoothā hill with lots of data;
I rode a rigid 29er singlespeed back when I was in my early 20s, and I did Chequamegon many times on that bike. I got a hardtail in 2018 and it was immediately noticeable how much more control I had in bumpier terrain - at Chequamegon, again, I felt much more confident charging through the rougher sections of that course. Then I got a FS in 2021 and I had the same revelation again where it was just much, much smoother over the rough stuff and I felt I had significantly improved control.
Is my raw power efficiency better on a FS than my rigid singlespeed? Probably not. Is my overall ārace system efficiencyā better, meaning I tackle rough courses as fast as smooth courses? 100%.
Overall, I think the āhorses for coursesā argument applies here, so if the terrain is appropriate and the riderās skills are adequate, a hardtail can be faster, but for much terrain and many riders, a FS is likely the better answer.
Maybe not performance as such. But things like maintenance and possibly reliability I see as factors too. Not a problem for the proās but certainly for me as a hobby rider. I am going with similar thoughts to Greenswim - that maybe a HT is overall a better choice for me.
Look, I donāt question that on a WC course, FS would be better, but I never ride a course like that and probably no one here does. Again, there are lots of anecdotal feeling about FS being faster, thatās fine, but Iād like to see something concrete, thatās all.
Have I ridden one, yes, but not to the extent I need to. Yesterday I rode 2 hours on flow trails, they were pretty smooth and I canāt see FS being faster and would like to give it a go to see it my feelings match almost everyoneās here.
As I said, Iām in the market and a XL demo is hard to find. I need some data damn it 
I have to admit I am hardtail curious. I enjoy ripping on my gravel bike and then get the idea to try it on some singletrackā¦ to immediately regret it and miss my MTB. 
I think the ONLY advantage of a hardtail is the āprice per pound.ā There is no doubt advantages to full suspension in both climbing and descending. With lockouts and now flight attendant I think the advantages of a full sus bike outweigh the weight difference. That leaves the only question to if you want to spend the $$$.