Lately I've been coming home with battered knees, wrists, foot soles, and taint. You guys weren't kidding when you said the official state crop is rocks. Not just any rocks of course, angular, pointy, unforgiving rock both loose and embedded. Of course there are low-test trails with minimal body-beating, but either they are mostly boring or I'm not finding the good ones so far (a few exceptions made for Hawes and Browns). I will always be a hard tail guy and am not excited about potentially jumping back into the squish realm, but I think my body may need it. I just have to decide what style of bike would best suit me. Getting old ain't for wusses.
AZ just might beat the hard tail right outta me
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This is why I have a hardtail, a 150mm travel bike, and I'm seriously considering a 120mm.
That would be the conundrum. If I make the jump I'm looking at something right in the middle, 135-ish of travel.
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1,203 Posts
If you are a hardtail guy, why not 120 or even 100?
We didn't think 60 or 80mm was anything to sneeze at in the late 90's. 100 was balling.
We didn't think 60 or 80mm was anything to sneeze at in the late 90's. 100 was balling.
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I think I switched to FS when I was 22. Even then, on the rocks and roots of northeast PA, I immediately felt less aches and pains, particularly in my lower back.
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120 can be pretty sweet, check out the Santa Cruz Blur.
My Japhy with a 120 fork is my main bike here, but I recently bought a big kid bike (Fezzari La Sal) for SoMo, Sedona, Lemmon etc. I tried being a one bike kind of guy, but those bigger trails are just not fun on a hardtail imo. I rode them, but felt like I was missing out on the real fun.
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It was fine even in my early 40s.. Note the usage of the word fine.
I'm 52 on a Santacruz HT for about 2 yrs now. I've taken my rigid 29er out every now and then. Ouch. Ibuprofen after. Will say though that my knee isn't the best(and a little heavy) ride mostly seated. I like a hardtail so much but my body can enjoy it so much more and longer rides with the plush FS.
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lol takes real skills to ride the gnarly stuff, its not the bike tho
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I'm only 50, but man.. Some things just are more impactful now.The word I noted was “was.”
=sParty
Without a doubt. But when miles of downhill singletrack literally don't have any lines without some kind of chattery rock, all the technique in the world doesn't stop you from getting beat up. Even when you're doing the 'light hands, heavy feet' thing hardtails require. The only thing that really helps is going as fast as possible through it in hopes to get skipping across it, but as you can imagine that has its own potential issues. I can only assume you aren't pushing 50 and and have ridden AZ trails on hard tail...
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I’m riding a 140/130 FS trail bike. It works pretty well as an all around bike for AZ. It’s a bit under biked on some of the really burly trails, but it works. I ride a lot of XC base miles, and it works well for that, whereas a 160 enduro bike wouldn’t.
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I'm 52 now and although my body isn't necessarily battered I've ridden out here long enough to appreciate the full suspension bike and have never wanted a hardtail as my only bike since my first year of riding. I figured that out pretty quickly.
Downsized in travel about 3 years ago....Currently riding a 27.5 mojo 3. It's 130 mm travel and I put 150 mm fork on it. There rear is under-biked for the chunkier terrain out here, but honestly I'm not riding that so much anymore. For everything else it's been just a blast. Takes the edge off but it's still poppy and super fun to ride. Of course you'd be laughed at if you rode a 27.5. so there's that. I'm okay with being laughed at.
Perhaps a 120 mm ish 29er is in order. If you want more playful with some squish and like to ride fast and enjoy quick hitting trail features ( or not) then maybe look at the mojo 4 or the 5010.
Downsized in travel about 3 years ago....Currently riding a 27.5 mojo 3. It's 130 mm travel and I put 150 mm fork on it. There rear is under-biked for the chunkier terrain out here, but honestly I'm not riding that so much anymore. For everything else it's been just a blast. Takes the edge off but it's still poppy and super fun to ride. Of course you'd be laughed at if you rode a 27.5. so there's that. I'm okay with being laughed at.
Perhaps a 120 mm ish 29er is in order. If you want more playful with some squish and like to ride fast and enjoy quick hitting trail features ( or not) then maybe look at the mojo 4 or the 5010.
I am in Tucson. Have two rigid and my big bike is a sniper. Cracked a rim on bugs on my sniper and it has taken me close to 5 months now to getting around to build another wheel. My rigid 29er got 90% of my riding in Tucson, Phx, El Paso, Flagstaff and Durango. My son just stole it so now I am on my rigid 650 travel bike and ordered a new hardtail 29 with a 100mm front end. But my sniper still isn’t running. I have a spare wheel in it but I am too lazy to retape it so it loses pressure over night. Would rather ride my rigid bikes. By the way I am faster on almost every downhill on my rigid bikes and the climbs are no contest. I am 48, have been riding since 87 and for whatever reason squishy bikes have never turned my crank.
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I'm ok riding CF rims there visiting, but after riding the new trails at Hawes inc. Sunset Ridge, I stand by my earlier thought that my primary wheelset down there would not be CF. There are just too many boulders and rocks that you snag during one of those runs down a trail like that, SoMo or Goat Cramp. I'm well versed in how rough these trails are and they are no surprise, but back when I lived down there I would get a spot on the Sunday Shuttle simply by the fact that one or a few bikes would already be out of action by the time I got down there from the high country. It eats bicycles and riders that let their guard down for just a moment.
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