Reply To: Anyone buy a bike from Bikes Direct?

#235328

For the same price, I agree that a hardtail will be much better. It will be much easier and cheaper to maintain, and you will never have to upgrade the rear shock and pivots. You are much better off with a quality front suspension fork.  I found that cheap “pogo stick” minimally damped forks really kill a bike’s capability.

A good fork with adjustable CTD damping (or adjustable platform damping) makes a humongous difference. In my opinion, it completely transforms the bike. This type of damping eliminates most pedaling bob (makes the bike much more efficient), the ride much more controllable (it quickly recovers from medium to bigger hits), and much more comfortable for those longer rides (quickly adjust to full open  damping while riding when the trail gets rough, and quickly back to semi-lockout for comfort and efficiency when it smooths out).