Modern day suspension is a scientific marvel, but don’t be afraid to get back to the basics and mix things up with a rigid fork. You might be surprised to discover that you learn new skills and may even really enjoy yourself.
Anytime a rider brings out a fully rigid steel mountain bike to most group rides and it will be sure to turn some heads, raise some eyebrows and… let’s just say it is the type of bike that should be respected, be in every mountain bikers stable, and ridden often. Rigid bikes are like diamonds in the rough, but the difference is that you and your skills are the ones that get polished. These bikes will help you find your flaws and perfect them into translatable skills from one bike to the next.
Modern suspension is great and it has taken its place at the top of preferred bike designs for a reason. It has allowed riders to tackle terrain that, only a handful of years ago, was considered inconceivable. Crazy-rocky-steep terrain can now be covered with speed, control and finesse. Modern suspension has also led to the progression of trail building. They have become more difficult, interesting and more variable in style. All of which offers benefits for everybody.
So….thank you suspension. Thank you for all of the above-mentioned reasons, and for making mountain biking and mountainous terrain more accessible. I do have one complaint though…
You have made a lot of us mountain bikers really lazy.
Discover new lines and features making old trails new again.
You have allowed us to hide our mistakes among your squishy parts and fancy links. Bikes pull us out of sticky situations all the time. There is sure to be a large group of folks in the audience reading this right now who have pointed a large travel squishy bike down a crazy jumbled up pile of rocks, closed their eyes, hoped for the best and come out the other side looking like a pro. Where is the skill? Where is the ability? You have allowed us to forget about the most important and truly skill enhancing suspension components available. . . our own bodies.
Becoming a better rider comes from tuning your own suspension, not the bikes. It will benefit every rider to drop the crutch of suspension and to, every now and then, get out on a fully rigid bike to learn and tune the components you we were born with. It sounds painful at first but trust in it and give it a shot.
Rail corners with precision and speed like never before.
5 Reasons Why You Should Ride a Rigid Bike
1. Mistakes Get Noticed. Get onto a rigid bike and you will soon notice how lazy and sloppy you have become at letting your body absorb the hits. While this doesn’t sound like a good reason at first, you will quickly realize that this will help your bike skills improve massively.
2. Make An Old Trail Feel New. Bring out the rigid bike and you will find all the smaller features and nuances of a familiar trail that a squishy bike simply ignores. Challenge is a good thing.
3. Cost. A steel fork will only set you back about a hundred bucks and will never require maintenance. It may cost you some extra change after you’ve tried rigid, loved it and decided to upgrade to a carbon version. But, that’s okay because your frame was cheaper too.
4. Options. When a mid-season funk sets in, having a different type of bike to jump on may just pull you out of it, and return your spirits to normal levels. Swapping your ride refreshes your skills, your trail’s features and stoke levels.
5. Fun. This is by far the most important reason. A rigid fork eliminates fork dive, allowing rigid bikes to rail turns like never before. You will also experience increased bar sensitivity, as well as become more in tune with the trail. As your bike handling skills improve you will find new features and alternate lines that you had just plowed over before.
New skills will come out of the woodwork when you simplify your ride.
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Still Not Convinced?
If, after all this, you are still not convinced to the wondrous virtues of rigid bikes don’t fret. We’ve got plenty of love for full suspension rigs. Take a gander at this article on reasons to ride squishy bikes, or check out this review of the 2015 Intense Tracer 275A
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9 Comments
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Eric. This post just landed in my email inbox, and I thought maybe a go with a rigid MTB rather than a “gravel bike” like the rlt 9 for races like the Oregon Gravel Epic. Thanks for making my decision slightly more difficult and possibly reducing the available real estate in my garage!
Oh, man! Those are some hard decisions. It may be harder to choose if you add the Niner RLT 9 Steel to your list: http://bit.ly/RLT9Steel.
One more reason to ride a fully rigid bike: weight.
I’ll be honest, my bike handling skills got a LOT better once I spend a couple seasons on a rigid single-speed 26’er with V-brakes. Feels kind of like a BMX bike. Riding a 5″ full-sus 29er by comparison feels like driving a monster truck. They’re both fun in their own ways but when it comes to learning finesse, there’s nothing like the rigid bike to hone skills.
However, a strong argument against this is that when you ride a rigid, you’re bound to pick the smoothest line, not necessarily the fastest. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard is, “Don’t take the smooth line fast. Take the fast line smooth.”
There’s a similar type of fan base in motorcycles that enjoys the nostalgia of limited travel suspension of older bikes compared to today’s long travel machines. Likewise, there’s a lot to be said about a very quick handling aluminum framed rigid bicycle with tires that are about 25-32 mm’s in size. Some of these bikes are very responsive and give an almost entirely different and fun ride.
Last summer in a moment of, some would say craziness, I bought a Salsa El Mariachi, rigid and…….. Single speed. Am I crazy? Well….
A bit about me, I’ve been riding trail/mountain biking for over twenty years, started with a Diamondback Ascent EX, steel frame, rigid fork. I rode the crap out of that bike. Next was a Cannondale F900 with the head shock, made in America, not to many of those these days. Next was another Cannondale, this time the F29 with a Lefty, alloy frame, super quick, I converted it to 1 by 10 and noticed no difference, just less shifting. And now the El Mar. Suspension, me. Gears one, but two speeds sitting down and standing up.
What I have learned. Single speed may slow you a tiny bit, but only a tiny bit, I have a couple of trails I go on regularly in the beginning of the El Mar experience my times were within 30-45 seconds of those on the F29. What the freak is going on here? Well I know the trails, that helps. I think it comes down to the rider, you have to love riding and embrace it, I do. After that it’s all kinda sorta easy. It sure is a lot of darn fun.
Now has it made me a better rider? I think so, I am stronger.
And the last bit about me, age, 65. Am I slower than twenty years ago, a little, I do,try to de a bit more careful. I want to ride another 30 or so, years.
We love to hear accounts like this! It is rad to hear that you are still pushing the limits at 65. We are continually inspired by people that show that growing older doesn’t mean getting old. Keep cranking out the miles and smiles.
Found this a very helpful read. I picked up a Carve Comp SL 29er with a Chisel front fork and a set of carbon wheels at the start of the season, this article nailed it. I have had so much fun learning the trails again while using my body as the suspension. Don’t get me wrong there were some growing pains as my first drop off caused my right hand to come off the bars, ending in an endo and a new helmet but once I got a feel for the rigid ride I found it very addictive. I also looking at a new full suspension bike but right now my rigid is all I’ve been riding.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful article,