Hardtail bikes are fun, lightweight and good for all around trail riding. It may come as a surprise that you can also ride downhill on a hardtail mountain bike, and they can be more capable than you might expect.
Hardtail versus full suspension mountain bike for downhill riding
Hardtail
Pros
- Teaches you to pick better lines
- Lighter in case you need to pedal back up the hill
- Less expensive than a full suspension mountain bike
- More maneuverable
Cons
- Not as smooth a ride as full suspension bikes
- Less forgiving on mistakes
- Slower over rough terrain
When riding downhill, a hardtail bike can be a lot of fun to ride, but it is quite a different experience compared to riding a full suspension bike.
Many new riders start out mountain biking on a hardtail bike. A major benefit of this, especially if you decide to do some downhill riding on your hardtail, is that it will teach you to pick better, smoother lines.
While a rider on a full suspension bike won’t need to be quite as choosy over which lines they pick, if you’re on a hardtail, you will need to be constantly scanning ahead to watch out for obstacles that may cause too much impact for your hardtail. In the long run, this can make you a better, more complete rider.
Hardtails are noticeably lighter than full suspension bikes, which has a couple of benefits.
As the saying goes in mountain biking, what goes down must come up. If you are doing downhill riding at trail systems with no lift or shuttle to the top, you’ll need to get yourself up there by pedaling (or walking) your bike. This becomes much easier on a lighter hardtail bike.
The other benefit of riding a lower weight hardtail is the added maneuverability it provides. A lighter bike feels more responsive and makes adjusting your line, or simply throwing your bike around for style while airborne, much easier.
One downside of riding a hardtail downhill is that on a given line, the hardtail will be less smooth compared to a full suspension. It will also be less forgiving on mistakes, meaning if you hit rocks, roots, or other obstacles you shouldn’t have, or make a mistake while hitting a technical feature, you will feel it a lot more on a hardtail.
Hardtails also won’t be winning a ton of races against full suspension bikes riding downhill. Full suspensions will be able to pick more direct lines, and not have to worry about some smaller obstacles that can cause trouble on a hardtail.
Full suspension
Pros
- Smoother over rough terrain
- Better forgiveness on mistakes
- Ability to ride faster
- Can choose more direct lines
Cons
- More expensive compared to a hardtail
- Usually heavier
Compared to a hardtail bike, full suspension bikes are built with more aggressive downhill riding in mind and for this reason, they provide some clear benefits for downhill riding over hardtails.
The rear shock on full suspension bikes helps to soak up bumps that hardtails can’t, making them clear favorites when riding downhill over rough trails. This extra suspension provides more forgiveness when you make mistakes, including riding over things you maybe shouldn’t have, or on less than perfect landings when hitting jumps and drops.
Knowing your bike has rear suspension to smooth out the ride adds confidence and allows you to ride faster over the rough stuff. It also lets you pick the most direct line to the bottom, and allows you to be less picky about your line choice.
Full suspensions are heavier than hardtails, so if you have to ride back up the hill, the extra weight will be more of a burden for you. If you do most of your riding at lift access trails, the weight of your bike will be less important.
Full suspension mountain bikes are also typically more expensive than hardtails, which puts them out of the price range of some riders.
Hitting technical sections and features on a hardtail mountain bike
Jumps
Downhill mountain biking often involves technical features like jumps and drops. Jumps are something you can totally do on a hardtail mountain bike, and in some ways, hardtails can be even better than a full squish for this.
This is because hardtails remove the variable that is the rear suspension. A rear shock, while great for soaking up bumps on the trail, can actually work against you on the take off of a jump.
Full suspension bikes will require you to pump more into the face of the jump, and depending on the rebound of the rear suspension, it can potentially throw you off balance while in the air.
By comparison, a hardtail bike is much simpler because you don’t have to worry about that extra moving part, and you won’t have to worry about adjusting your rear shock rebound settings and figuring out the weighting and pump required into the face of the jump. For this reason, many dedicated dirt jump mountain bikes are hardtails.
Drops
Drops are similar to jumps as both types of features will see you getting some airtime. A key difference is jumps will usually send you upwards, whereas drops have flatter takeoffs and the airtime you get is while you drop to the landing.
For this reason, the concerns about the rear shock rebound are not as big of a deal, because there isn’t as much force being put into the ground (and therefore less compression of the suspension) as you start the drop compared to on a jump where the force and compression into the face of the jump is greater.
Hardtails can handle drops just like they can handle jumps, but they aren’t better than a full suspension for drop features. Assuming the landing is a relatively smooth, downhill surface, a hardtail will capable of handling many drops. If you are going to be doing really large drops though, you may prefer the added forgiveness of a full suspension bike.
Rocks and roots
A hardtail bike can ride over most rocks and roots with no major problems, but as the rider you will feel yourself getting bounced around much more than you would on a full suspension.
This makes picking good lines that much more important if you’re riding a hardtail.
Riding a hardtail at the bike park
Bike parks are often ski hills converted to be used for downhill mountain biking in the warmer months, but sometimes they are trail systems with roads at the top and bottom that provide shuttle service to get you back up the hill.
Many bike parks will be just fine for you to ride at on a hardtail, but you may not be able to do some of the more advanced trails and features depending on the terrain.
That doesn’t mean you can’t still have a great time and do some fast downhill riding and features, but after a certain point, features of certain sizes, or terrain that is just too rough, may not be fun or all that safe on a hardtail mountain bike.
Tips for better downhill riding on a hardtail
Choose lines carefully
Choosing your line well is very important for downhill riding, and its even more important if you’re riding a hardtail.
Hardtails can handle a lot of rough terrain, but to have the fastest and smoothest ride possible, you’ll want to watch out for obstacles like rocks and roots over a certain size. Poor line choice will have you bouncing around all over the place, especially if you’re riding at high speed.
Body position and weight shift
Another factor that becomes more important when your bike doesn’t have a rear shock is your body position and weighting of the bike.
A good rule of thumb for weighting the wheels properly as you ride is to try to have less weight on a wheel as it hits an obstacle like a rock or root. So as you ride over something, try to de-weight your front wheel as it contacts the obstacle by shifting your weight back, and de-weight the rear wheel once it gets to the obstacle by shifting your weight forward.
This is accomplished through body positioning. It takes some practice and timing to get this down, but once you do it can really smooth out your ride.
Keeping your weight forward as you ride makes it easier to quickly de-weight and re-weight the front wheel as you ride over rough terrain.
Not all hardtails are created equal
Just as there is a wide variety in full suspension mountain bikes on the market, the same is true for hardtails. Some hardtail MTBs are designed with cross country riding in mind.
Others are built with more aggressive, slack geometry and are designed more for trail riding, downhill and technical features.
Another factor to consider is wheel size. 29 inch wheels offer added forgiveness compared to 27.5 inch wheels, and will roll more smoothly over chunky terrain by comparison.
The geometry of your bike’s design along with its wheel size can make as big a difference in how it rides as whether or not it’s equipped with rear suspension.
Safety of riding a hardtail downhill
Riding a hardtail bike downhill is as safe you the rider make it. As long as you ride within your abilities and comfort zone, and wear a quality helmet (along with any other safety equipment you may prefer), a hardtail is safe to ride downhill.
Staying safe riding downhill is more about the rider being smart and understanding what they are capable of rather than what bike they are on. Even riders with downhill bikes can hurt themselves if they try to ride at a level above their abilities, or if they make a mistake while hitting a big feature.
Frequently asked questions
Any mountain bike, hardtail or not, has the potential to break from big impacts, but modern MTBs are designed to withstand a beating. If you ride over very rough terrain at a high rate of speed, or have a hard landing off a jump or drop, a hardtail bike is more likely to be damaged compared to a full suspension because rather than have a rear shock take the brunt of the impact, a lot of that force will go through the wheel of your hardtail and other components.
Before riding downhill it’s a good idea to make sure all components and bolts are secured properly and nothing is loose on your bike.
Yes you can definitely ride a hardtail at the bike park. You probably won’t be winning races to the bottom against full suspension riders, and you may have to limit yourself to easier trails like blues and greens, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have a blast.
In many ways riding downhill on a hardtail will make you a better rider. You will be forced to pick better, smoother lines and learn proper technique such as the mechanics of de-weighting your wheels to keep the ride smooth. These skills will translate if you do end up getting a full suspension bike in the future, which will make riding rough terrain even smoother and easier for you.
Yes hardtail bikes are safe for jumps and drops, and in many ways are even better for hitting dirt jumps compared to full suspension rigs thanks to there being less moving parts and no rebound to worry about from a rear shock.
With that being said, there is a limit to the size of features you should attempt on a hardtail. After a certain point the impact on landing may become too great for your bike to handle without rear suspension. Thankfully most well built features have smooth landing areas/transitions that minimize impacts if you land correctly.
Conclusion
Downhill riding on a hardtail is a lot of fun, a great challenge and is perfect to test and build your MTB skills. While you won’t be the fastest to the bottom on a hardtail bike, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a try. You may be surprised by how much fun you can have!