Full suspension for part road use any good?

terrysearle87

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I'm planning on getting my first e-bike mainly for cycling to work. The way there is 15 miles of road, but the way back I'm hoping to do some trail riding. I've been offered a good price on a full suspension mountain bike, but just wondering how it'll be on the road parts? Or should I get a hard Tail?

Does anyone use full sus on roads and can you realistically get over the 15mph on the flat road?
Thanks
 

Gaz

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Sep 14, 2016
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If the bike's worth it and you can taughten up the rear suspension, then I don't see why not. I've come from no suspension to front suspension and my wrist really likes it. Let's face it, our roads are rarely linoleum smooth these days.

I'd imagine choice of tyre would be particularly relevant for you.

As my leg strength is improving, I'm going further and faster. My longest ride to date was last week, 42 miles at an average of 15.2mph, so I was obviously past the 15.5mph cut-off for a fair bit of that. Considering my poor level of fitness I was well happy.

Gaz
 

Trevormonty

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Jul 18, 2016
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I'm planning on getting my first e-bike mainly for cycling to work. The way there is 15 miles of road, but the way back I'm hoping to do some trail riding. I've been offered a good price on a full suspension mountain bike, but just wondering how it'll be on the road parts? Or should I get a hard Tail?

Does anyone use full sus on roads and can you realistically get over the 15mph on the flat road?
Thanks
Only downside to FS extra maintenance. All those suspension linkages need regular servicing. The commuting savings should go along way to extra maintence costs.
Off road they are brillant and not a lot different onroad from hardtail, tyres being biggest factor.

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I've been using FS e-bikes on the road for 6 years. I've never had to do any maintenance in the last 3 years (4000 miles) not even pumping up. In the three years before that, I had to pump up occassionally. Obviously, that's proper air suspension. Coil springs don't need pumping up.

The plus side is better comfort on long rides. The minus side is the slightly higher weight and slightly lower efficiency. Efficiency is not such a problem with an electric FS bike.

If you're thinking of doing a conversion, FS brings some complications, so show us what bike you plan to convert before committing to it.
 

Trevormonty

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I've been using FS e-bikes on the road for 6 years. I've never had to do any maintenance in the last 3 years (4000 miles) not even pumping up. In the three years before that, I had to pump up occassionally. Obviously, that's proper air suspension. Coil springs don't need pumping up.
1800km over 6months with lot of MTBing, some of my suspension bearings need replaced. It is not till I stripped linkages down and checked bearings that I knew they needed attention.

As I finding out with cube stereo 140, access to lower swing arm linkages is an issue due to cable and brake hose routing.

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Trevormonty

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I've been using FS e-bikes on the road for 6 years. I've never had to do any maintenance in the last 3 years (4000 miles) not even pumping up. In the three years before that, I had to pump up occassionally. Obviously, that's proper air suspension. Coil springs don't need pumping up.
1800km over 6months with lot of MTBing, some of my suspension bearings need replaced. It is not till I stripped linkages down and checked bearings that I knew they needed attention.

As I finding out with cube stereo 140, access to lower swing arm linkages is an issue due to cable and brake hose routing.

Sent from my SM-G570Y using Tapatalk
 

Gaz

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1800km over 6months with lot of MTBing, some of my suspension bearings need replaced. It is not till I stripped linkages down and checked bearings that I knew they needed attention.
Hmmm! I guess it's like checking chains with a wear gauge. As long as you don't check them, they last for ever, but if you check them, the gauge shows that they're worn. Is that something to do with Heisenberg's uncertainty principle?
 

baldylox

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May 25, 2012
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Just my thoughts but I've been using a Giant Trance full suspension MTB on and off road and with the Oxydrive CST kit added for a few years now and I can easily manage 18-20 mph on road (with pedalling and moderate assist) I use a tyre which manages well on road and performs off road along with the ability to "lock out" the suspension (front and rear). I would broadly agree with points as above and that suspension maintenance is required more frequently if you go off road and components get covered in crud, whereas a little care in cleaning your bike can stretch any maintenance needs.

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Trevormonty

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If you are spending good money on good FS because of performance gains. Why let that performance diminish to save money. Riders don't notice loss of performance over time until they get a good service.
Running chains past they best by, not only damages the drive train but also increases chance of failure of critical item. Murphy law says that failure will be on a awesome ride in middle of nowhere.

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baldylox

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If you are spending good money on good FS because of performance gains. Why let that performance diminish to save money. Riders don't notice loss of performance over time until they get a good service.
Running chains past they best by, not only damages the drive train but also increases chance of failure of critical item. Murphy law says that failure will be on a awesome ride in middle of nowhere.

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True, my chain broke on a long ride far from home. It wasn't fixable in the feild and it was only the fact that I had a hub motor that I was able to "power" myself home.
However, I have serviced my suspension but couldn't really feel that much of an improvement compared to just prior to service IMHO.
Keeping it clean and lubed, works for me.

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RobF

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Sep 22, 2012
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Was looking at either this https://www.electricbikesales.co.uk/Electric-Bike-Special-Offers-ebike-electric-bikes-discounts/STEREO-HYBRID-160-HPA-ACTION-TEAM-500-27.5
Or the trek powerfly 9 hardtail.
Swaying more towards the Cube now, thanks

You are after road speed, so will quickly tire of pushing knobblies along which means semi-slick tyres.

This will limit your trail riding on the way home, not the suspension.

The bike in your link is long travel, almost down hill spec.

Full-sus is good for comfort, but you may as well buy a cheaper one.
 

chris130256

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May 4, 2016
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Exactly what RobF says. It would be like owning a top off road spec Landrover Defender then having to put road tyres on it. Defeat the object of having an off roader.
The tyres on the Cube wouldn't last long with the road use you'll be doing.
My Haibke All mountain is crap on flat roads. I can go faster on my normal bike. That changes when hills are included.
With your budget you've got lots of options. There are plenty of bikes around £1000 that will do off roading and road use and plenty of fantastic full suss bikes for £3000. Best of both worlds having 2 bikes!
 

terrysearle87

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Thanks for all the help, sadly the other half would flip if I had two new bikes, hence trying to find the best of both. The shop is saying have two sets of wheels, one for road with road tyres and up the compression in the forks and then have the original set for weekend trail riding. I know I won't be able to trail ride the way home, but should it give me a good enough speed on the road? Thanks
 

RobF

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Thanks for all the help, sadly the other half would flip if I had two new bikes, hence trying to find the best of both. The shop is saying have two sets of wheels, one for road with road tyres and up the compression in the forks and then have the original set for weekend trail riding. I know I won't be able to trail ride the way home, but should it give me a good enough speed on the road? Thanks
Only you can know what speed is good enough, but the bike on semi-slick tyres would roil reasonably well once you get it moving.

It might be possible to pedal above the 15.5mph cut off on a flat road, for how long will depend how fit you are.

Gearing may also come into play, the bike won't be geared for road speed, although that can be changed.

Two sets of wheels is a reasonable plan.

Slight snag is the gears may not index sweetly on both wheels, it will work, just not quite as well as it should.

What is the extra cost - £300 or more?

You say the other half won't let you have two bikes, but for less than £4.5K you could get two bikes both of which would be better suited to their respective purposes.
 
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Trevormonty

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jul 18, 2016
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Thanks for all the help, sadly the other half would flip if I had two new bikes, hence trying to find the best of both. The shop is saying have two sets of wheels, one for road with road tyres and up the compression in the forks and then have the original set for weekend trail riding. I know I won't be able to trail ride the way home, but should it give me a good enough speed on the road? Thanks
For commuting and light to moderate trail riding a 27+ hardtail might be better. Definitely cheaper and less work to maintain than FS. Most hardtails have mounts for rack and panniers which should be high on you list for commuter. After a year or two you should be able to justify a FS from commuter savings if your MTBing becomes more serious.

Average speed tends to be dictated by 15mph assist cutoff, regardless of whether it is MTB or commuter.
 

eHomer

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Aug 20, 2012
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I don't use my bikes for commuting, and all of my cycling is now on country lanes and unpaved foot/cycle paths, so the surfaces are much more bumpy than most urban or city roads.

I've never been able to restrict myself to a single bike, so I use full sus, front sus, and rigid bikes and trikes, so I can appreciate the pros and cons of each.

Like many users of this forum, I get as much satisfaction from DIY converting and modifying as the actual riding, so all of my bikes were developed from individual parts.

The bike I still use most is a full sus German "Alubike" that I converted with a front hub motor. Apart from being very lightweight, it has the unusual combination of unisex low step-through frame with rear swinging arm suspension. It's no trail blazer, but coupled with reasonable quality front suspension forks it absorbs potholes really well.

I have a Giant Trance full sus bike as well, and I tried a rear hub motor on that for a while, but there was no convenient way of carrying the battery in the unusual frame spaces and the weight made it much less fun than when ridden unpowered, so I converted that back to a normal bike.

I also have a Hase Lepus recumbent trike which I converted to electric, with a front hub motor, (in my avatar). That is a fantastic touring machine, very comfortable, with the reclining position, but not too low to make it disconcerting or dangerous in traffic. That has really good rear suspension, with about 6 inches of travel, and there's much less weight over the front wheel, so no need for sprung forks.

So hard tail or full sus ?

Go for both and get the best of both worlds :).....

As eBikes and bikes thankfully require no registration, MOTs or insurance, there's no financial recurring overheads, unlike motorbikes, it's just a question of storage space, (and putting up with the moans from SWMBO....)

alubike q100h.jpg right side.jpg lepus side.jpg
 

Croxden

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Jan 26, 2013
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I find the rear suspension on my Delite does more work than the front under normal riding.
It is a trekking bike and set up different than a proper mountain bike, that's why it's so comfortable.