Hardtail Vs Full Suspension | Cross Country Mountain Bike Shootout

When it comes to World Cup level Cross Country racers, travelling to a venue with 2 bikes is not uncommon. That way the racer can decide on the day, which they feel more comfortable riding on the course in hand. Neil takes a look at how the course dictates this choice and which he would choose on his own very varied local loop.

Neil goes head to head on a course he's super familiar with. Will the full sus bike make enough time on the rough stuff to make up for it's extra weight on the climbs and slightly less efficient pedalling? Let's find out...

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[TriRussell]

Thanks for being honest about the conditions and still posting the video.

[mtnmikebikes]

Props for seeing the test variables were off with that wind and planning to redo them. So many people ignore stuff like this.

[BassBusMusic]

Good to see some cross country content. More XC please.

[kubagajda]

Great vid! Honestly XC seems to be a little underrated among viewers here - maybe because it's not as spectacular to watch as, let say, EWS, but the strenght and endurance of the xc riders is insane. I highly recomend everyone to take a look at Cape Epic videos. Simply amazing.

[bryn_appleton]

I have a Hardtail and use it for xc, DH, 4x, dirt jumps and general trail use, I love it even if it has only got 100 of travel☺

[GT-cxvd]

Hardtails are religion. I ride a 26 and will not change it for any full sus. I know that technically they are better, especially on the way down but feeling the trail and having to work out my way out is part of the fun for me

[woodburner]

Thanks for the honesty regarding the results, and thanks for still posting this video despite the result's. it was still interesting content and worth the watch.

[kalijamies]

Finally some good XC-content on the channel despite the results not being valid. Please Neil deliver us this kind of content even once in a while since you are the only presenter who can do it (miss Scotty a bit..). I've seen enough jumping and trail techniques. Personally, I'm all about hardtail any day!

[SuperSplat]

Great review, I miss these style of videos you used to make ages ago! Good to see an unbiased test set up, as good as possible, and to see a “failed” test that explains why... Looking forward to your final conclusion! Love the content the channel(s) are pumping out-always motivated to just get out and ride my bike(s)!

[alexanderwendelbo]

Nice to get some xc. I ride a 26” hardtail, I ride in Denmark, and I don’t think I would go full sus. A perfect bike for me would be a aggressive 29” hardtail.

[HallMarc_Trails]

Currently own a full suspension but would love another hard tail as my spare/alternative bike, i miss my orange subzero hard tail :)

[oileigh]

Great to see some xc even if the UK winter conditions mucked it up a bit. You said it as it is and that's my language. Looking forward to the results. Weather permitting.

[alipeebles]

Love it when you work on hardtails, great vid as usual

[caperider]

I own and ride both. This way, I never have to worry about if I made the right purchase. Sounds dumb but works.

Hard to draw the line where each dominates but I can tell which of my bike will go faster once I try the route

[cup_and_cone]

If you're a beginner, I always recommend a hard tail, because you progress much more quickly being forced to manhandle the bike, place it where you need, move around out of the saddle more, fight for traction, etc. A full suspension makes one somewhat lazy and they tend to just plow over things they wouldn't on a hard tail, making it easy for a beginner to learn bad habits. Plus there's the cost difference, lowering the barrier to entry into MTBing for beginners.

[callawaycass]

Ideas for controlling a hardtail vs. full suspension (vs. rigid?!) test: find 3 climbs of about 5 minutes each. One smooth, one mild, one super technical. Time on each bike 3 to 5 tries. Spread over multiple days is okay, as long as the order you ride the bikes in is mixed up each day. Also record power so you can integrate over time to calculate the total amount of work done. (I will forego the suggestion to normalize for bike weight.)

Sorry for the crazy DOE (design of experiment), but I am an engineer.

Side note, I have no interest in XC; however, the geek in me is still interested in these type of videos. Keep up the good work, fellas! (Or should I say, "chaps"?)

[GogglesTyresandTrainers]

Great video from Neil.. lots of questions raised and all of them valid. I appreciate you saying the results were skewed based on conditions.. that's refreshing to see rather than just opting for the easy choice of full sus is quicker :)

[rlouisdeerfield]

This is a fantastic piece of popular science journalism that shows the difficulty in getting great results and still showing value in less than perfect test conditions! Thanks for the effort and refreshing video explaining the difficulties we scientists face!

[travelingprofessional]

I had the opportunity to rent both a hardtail and full suspension xc bike during my decision making process when deciding on a new bike. I'm so glad I got to ride both. I ended up going with the hardtail. Living in the midwest US (I ride in Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North and South Dakota, and Nebraska) I found that the hard tail was plenty sufficient for the terrain we have around here. The money I would have spent on the suspension components of the full suspension bike bought a better equipped hardtail.

[nickwatkins]

These days I only ride full suspension I'd love to get on a hard trail and have a blast great video Cheers 🍻. 👀