Thinking Of Buying A Full Suspension MTB? Here’s What You Need To Know

0:00 did you see the video the other day where Anna and Blake told you everything you'll need to know when it comes to getting your first hotel well if you haven't it's linked down below don't worry but it got me thinking what about if you're buying a full sauce well don't worry I've got your back because in this video we're going to look at everything you'll need to note when it comes to buying your first full sauce full suspension bikes by their very nature are more complicated than their hardtail counterparts because there's more moving Parts going on you've got a rear shock that needs to be driven in some way shape or form so there's lots of different linkages idlers and various other systems out there which is crucial to understanding I think before you go choosing what kind of full suspension bike you're going to want take into account as well different lengths of travel well then you've got a whole host

0:46 of things to choose from but as a Rough Guide anything with around 100 Mil travel is generally considered a cross-country bike between the 120 140 maybe up to 150 is a trail bike 150 to 170 is an Enduro bike and anything over sort of the 180 especially up to 200 mil of travel at the back is definitely a downhill bike territory foreign over to a full suspension bike is going to be like riding a magic carpet all that travel at the back especially if you come from the world of hardtails is going to feel like an absolute dream especially when the trail gets rougher so you're like I said you'll choose what kind of travel you want at the back you'll generally have slightly More Travel up the front to take all the impacts but honest to God you're going

1:32 to hop on a full suspension bike and be like damn this is comfy why did I not do this sooner [Music] with a full suspension bike when it comes to certain types of riding it is going to slow you down a little bit so I say it's like a Magic Carpet Ride smoothing out all those bumps and whatnot however the Bob in a suspension unless it's got a lockout which some suspension units definitely do especially when we go towards that XC end of the scale it's going to be a little slower up the hills you'll have a little bit more weight to drag you'll get that bobbin feeling and it's just going to take you a little bit longer but don't let that put you off I still think a full sauce is the way to go [Laughter] I want to talk cost now because there's

2:18 no denying it and there's no getting away from the fact that a full suspension bike it costs more and there's a few reasons for that one you've got this whole new moving part added to the bike there's an extra expense the manufacturing process of the frame well that becomes a little bit trickier as well because you've got linkages you've got more moving Parts separate parts going on and then you've got to integrate things like bearings and bushings as well so this all adds up in the production process when it comes to manufacturing and increasing the cost so I just want to say if you are looking at Full Source bear that in mind and especially if we go into frame materials and aluminum or possibly a steel frame as well is going to be slightly cheaper than if we go up to carbon frames but the great thing a lot of Manufacturers do do is they'll offer the same bike and carbon and

3:05 aluminum packages this is a carbon nuke proof reactor 29er but they also make an aluminum one at a lower price as well if your budget is sort of down that end of the market should we say [Music] this this right here these pivots linkages bushings and bearings well they wear out much like your drivetrain does on any other kind of bike they're subject to wear and tear from the elements water dirt grit dust things like that and because of that they do wear over time so you're gonna have to keep on top of them so what you want to keep an eye out for is any knocking or play in them you can often find out if you were just sort of to pick the seat tube up here and you felt like a knock like going up and down then that is something that could indicate that there is wear and tear also any sort of side

3:51 to side Flex if you were to hold the bike and flex the wheel side to side and you could hear it Knocking obviously it could be the wheel but potentially something going on in a pivot as well always make sure things are talked up correctly greased up where they should be and if there is any play or movement replace that as soon as you possibly but can because it can result in more damage further down the line to the potential frame as well now I have a theory when it comes to full suspension bikes if you're buying a full-sus bike get the the best frame set that you can possibly afford now the reason for this is it's very easy to upgrade all the parts which is my next top tip and things that you can do you can upgrade the parts a lot easier than you can upgrade an entire frame so if you could maybe get a lower spec but

4:38 carbon frame over a very high Spec aluminum frame what I would potentially go for the carbon version this is personal opinion I should say because you can easily then upgrade all the parts and have it built around a really good frame having said that if you're looking for something that's really sturdy and Longevity well then an aluminum frame is obviously possibly something of the way to go for you and then upgrading the parts around that but upgrades are a great way of lowering the weight improving the ride of the bike and really sort of customizing things exactly as you want it to be if or when you decide to get a full suspension bike well then obviously the biggest crucial difference is the suspension unit on it now we're going to talk about tuning this up now what I

5:24 mean is everything you would do with a suspension Fork so adapting it to ride and behave exactly the way you'd want it for your weight style of riding perhaps and type of riding that you do you're going to do to the rear shock as well so really have a think about this a great thing to do if you're going to just do it by yourself is put as much time as possible on it so as many rides on as much different terrain as you can to really get a feel for how the thing rides and how you want it to react if you want to go that step further there are tons of suspension tuners out there that you can actually just take the unit off send that away to a suspension tuning Workshop if you like give them some crucial facts at your weight riding style type of bike that it's come off and they'll get it tuned to what they think will work best for you but there's so much that can be done on this it's really worth putting the time in when you do get one to get it running exactly

6:10 as you want but look that's it have I missed anything from riding a full size is there any other bits of information that maybe you'd like to see in a future video well if there are do let us know in the comments down below but as for me I'm gonna go shred this little bite later on so I'll catch you later everybody thanks for watching and I'll see ya