Can you do downhill with a hardtail

When the rear of the bike is taking hits constantly, anything that connects to the rear wheel will take a hit. So make sure your tire chain has the proper slack and that your rear derailleur is adjusted properly so you can get the power to the ground. The general idea is to be a bit less extreme and take a smarter path downhill and have a blast doing it. Many XC bikes are hardtails, and many of these hardtail mountain bikes can handle jumps up to around 2 feet high.

My advice is to keep it sane. Remember just how expensive your bike is and that should keep your inner thrill-devil in check. Remember you are choosing your smartest path down the mountain. You have now forced your skills to improve. You force yourself to adapt and learn to read the terrain and make smarter decisions going downhill.

You force your skills to evolve. Now when you take the same downhill course with a trail bike you will be that much better of a rider. When you ride XC singletrack trails and fire roads and such, you will also tend to be much more award of the terrain and obstacles around you. There are a few things you can do to make the rider a bit more bearable when you take a hardtail mountain bike on a rocky path:.

So yes, you can ride a hardtail downhill. It teaches you how to pick your path smartly which is a skill that will benefit you for a long time. I am a mountain biker among other things and I enjoy writing about both topics I know but also about new things about mountain bikes that I learn. If you enjoy tackling trails and tracks and everything in between, then this is the blog for you.

Why Ride a Hardtail Bike Downhill? Why would they do that? The thing is, there are roughly things that will break if you push it too far: You could crack the frame usually this is big drops or jumps You could damage the brakes You could bend a rim You could hurt yourself The general idea is to be a bit less extreme and take a smarter path downhill and have a blast doing it.

Your tyres cover only a tiny amount of ground at any one time — generally about a 2. Try thinking about it, though, and it becomes unnerving…. Practice pulling up your front end and landing on both wheels, or slightly rear wheel first.

Try it on something less challenging to start with, such as a kerb, and then build up to bigger obstacles. This is one of the areas where you have to pick your way through.

Look for a bank about head height, and as steep as you dare, to practice on. This height is safer than bigger options. You can then build up to steeper and higher banks. Having looked at the bank, you should have already assessed what the run-in is like. Ride towards the bank at a comfy rolling speed, and as you approach the edge, get out of the saddle with your cranks horizontal.

Jump over stuff where you can and look for really cheeky lines that avoid bumps, even if it means taking slightly slower inside lines or getting in the grass! You probably wont lose much speed as smashing into a huge pile of holes on the brakes on a hardtail is going to be nasty and slow anyway so slow down a little more than you need and ride round them to come quicker out on the smoother flowier bits!!! Thanks for all your tips, and nice video!!!! Would a bag be a good idea to wear when going on a DH track?

I did a week in Morzine and Les Gets on a hardtail and it was fine. I saw that video of the fella riding the Chromag in Whistler a while back on hardtailnation. Bollocks like space hoppers no doubt. Right then, I hope to provide an answer to this by the end of tomorrow.

The reason is that tomorrow I shall be taking my hardtail and my rather shonky bike skills to the Cwmcarn uplift day. Apologies for anyone up there tomorrow, I will be the tall guy with some second hand body armour holding everyone up. In terms of the bike I rode everything there including the road drop. I was not very quick but I suspect that was more down to me than the bike. The rocky bits were quite hard work but I found a little speed helped me ride it, it was much harder work for the first few runs when I was on the brakes a lot more.

I would suggest investing in some BIG tyres I ran a 2. However, I would suggest that, at least to begin with, you think of it as riding down a hill rather than riding downhill. I felt more confident with them but again this maybe because I am a bit of mincer.

Although personally I would rate breaking my collar bone slightly more important than pulling a skid. It really really really is the rider not the bike. Thats not to say that an accomplished rider wont go faster on a full suss but that a decent rider will ride well whether it be on a tail or bouncer.

I know you have kind of said that already but what you fail to understand is that most skills are easier learnt on a hardtail than a full suss. Jumping straight into a huge downhill bike for riding dh means you ignore the basic skills that you need to learn. Jumping, line choice, getting off the brakes etc as the bike does a lot for you and overcompensates but at quite a basic level.

At first this is good but over time the slack angles, long travel and excess weight mean its harder to pick up such skills so ultimately your progress will stagnate and it can take longer to learn to use a big bike to its full potential. Like driving cars I suppose; anyone can tank it in a ferrari but its better to have experience in a lesser car first so that you can really make use of its performance!

Having said that if your off somewhere fancy on hol or whatever then hiring a big bike for the day is great laugh just stay away from those stupid fat tired scooter things! As per the advice above get a fat rear tyre to smooth it out a bit and you will be grand!