Today I did my first 20 mile (33km) ride on my hardtail XC bike. I learned how to ride a bike about 1.5 months ago, but I’ve been riding pretty consistently since I learned. I ride exclusively in the city, it’s a very walkable city, but the paths aren’t always the best. I did 33km in 2 hours 53 minutes, not including breaks for water or to eat.
I see people saying that 10MP/H (16KM/H) average is a good average to shoot for, but i can’t even get my average above 7.1MPH (11.5KM/H), even on shorter rides. What am I doing wrong here? How are people going so freaking fast on bikes in cities?
So the shocks don’t really keep anything from breaking, they’re purely for comfort.
Well, shocks can also keep the wheels touching the ground more often on bumpy terrain, for better traction. Think climbing a hill on rooty, rocky singletrack, without losing traction and therefore momentum.
But yeah, no: In order to get to the point where you actually need suspension to stop the frame snapping in half or something like that, you’ve gotta be doing some real X-Games shit. And at that point you need full suspension anyway, not just a hardtail.
(Either that, or your frame was defective and unsafe to begin with.)