Bike with dual suspension?

Question

whats the difference between a bike with dual suspension and one without it? is dual suspension better?

Answer 1

dual suspension is better for downhill and trail riding but hardtail is better for dirt jumping and urban riding

Answer 2

IMO Dual-Suspension bikes are *only* necessary for downhill riding/racing. I often see a lot of people with dual-susp bikes on the road and ask myself "why".

Front (or Hardtail) or no suspension at all is perfectly fine for normal off road paths, commuting and general use really.

Having suspension in the rear means that a lot of the power you are exerting is being absorbed into the suspension (be it spring or hydraulic system) and therefore being wasted. This makes to very inefficient for normal use.

Not only that, bu if you get a cheap dual-susp bike (as a lot of them are...) there's more things that can (read - will) go wrong with it. I'd suggest getting a bike with simple parts (i.e normal V-brakes and front susp forks only) rather than a cheap bike with parts which won't work very well and will falter after little use (i.e disc brakes and rear-suspension)

Answer 3

The dual suspension or dual suspension bikes are the ones where both wheels have suspension movement, while hardtails only have front suspension.

Full suspension bike are probably better than hardtails (bikes with only front suspension, or fork) when you get to decent builds.  That thing about the suspension eating all your power is bla bla bla.  When you have a good FS, it will provide better traction, won't beat you up in long rides (even climbs).  There are a lot of different bikes that are FS, some are very good for cross country (or XC), meaning they pedal very well, are nimble, but aren't designed for heavy duty.  And some can be very light.

A hardtail is maybe more direct, in which you feel all the rocks and bumps, but also all your pedal movement is transfered to the rear wheel.  Wow, so what about the previous thing?  A good FS will also prove this, but it will also provide more traction where the terrain is not perfect.  There are some climbs where a FS will beat a HT.  Probably a long but steady climb can be better done with a hardtail, but ones where there is lot of gravel, rocks and ruts will be done easier with a FS.

Now, the deal is, most cheap bikes that are full suspension won't work like this, they are a lot heavier than similarily priced hardtails, and the rear suspension will not drive the rear wheel along the terrain, but will just bob and this do eat your energy rather than use it.

So if your budget is probably below 800 to 1,000 us dollars, you're most probably better with a hardtail than a full suspension.