Full Sus Maintenance

[Keith Oates]

Being fairly new to MTB riding, I'm still undecided if I should go for a full Sus bike or upgrade to to a higher quality Hard Tail. Most of the people that I ride with on the Sunday Morning MTB Club rides have full Sus and tell me how much they are better over the rough stuff although I manage to keep with them most of the time. However the one thing that I've noticed and considered is that the frequency and cost of regular maintenance is much higher on the Sus than the hardtail. Does anyone have any opinion if the extra cost of the Sus is worth the money or is a good hardtail sufficient for the single track and muddy trails that we have here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[spence]

Without getting into the FS vs HT argument (get one of each and pick on the day) my full sus, purchased in 2006 has cost one full shock service, one air can service and few squirts of grease. About £150 all in, used a couple of times a week over 6 years bearable I think.

 

[Cubist]

What's to maintain? Occasional pivot bushes and an aircan..... not really much more than any MTB which if you ride hard and keep tip-top are all money-pits anyway.

Get one. The purists are all on rigid singlespeed fatbikes now anyway, so even hardcore hardtail fanaticism seems wet by comparison.

 

[Keith Oates]

Thanks for the replies which gives me the sort of info I needed. I've currently got a Trek 4300 and I commute on it each day as well as going out with the club on Sundays. It's now done over 5000 Kms since January and the front forks are giving a bit of trouble. That gets a good clean once a week and I lub all the cables each week as well as the chain, which gets oiled more often if there is a lot of rain. As you say Cubist they do cost a bit to keep them in good condition!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tim O'Reilly]

Have both!