Reason 4: I still ride a Hard Tail

Some think its old school - purist, others say it's plain stupid. I've been riding hard tails for the past fifteen years or so. I’m not a traditionalist or modern day luddite. In the early 90’s I bought my first full suspension bike – a Mongoose Amplifier. Actually it was an AMP (remember Horst Leitner) branded as a Mongoose …well you know the story. Great bike, fast, super light, killer suspension (well it was a lot then), but, ……… it required a monthly rebuild on the pivot points. It seemed like I hardly got the bike together, then the fork and back end had more flex than a fishing rod!

Thats when I moved onto Hard Tails - I wanted to ride bikes, not work on them. Times change and people say full suspension is no longer as maintenance intensive. I still don’t believe them. Give me a chance to rider the 2010 S-Works Stumpjumper full suspension for a year then I’ll tell you, warts and all, whether I still stand by my hard tail or not.