First Full Sus Experience

[Beekeeper]

First ever experience today of a full suspension bike of any kind.

The bike was a Canyon Spectral:On 7 2021 retailing for £5200 approx. It was basically brand new and still had stickers attached to it.

Went for a 4 hour blast around the Surrey hills, traversing the same routes I do with my Cube hardtail for comparison.

Simply dropping off the first curb onto a road was a whole new experience, as if the curb did not even exist and I certainly appreciated the nice damping effect from the Rockshox Delux Select.

Speeding down the rocky bridleway from Box Hill was a real delight as the bike stuck to the trail like glue. The beefy 150mm Lyrik smashed through everything. It really was like floating on air and for the first time my bones didn’t feel as if they were about to shatter into pieces.

The seat was hard to begin with and never really enjoyed it but I got used to it.

The EP8 motor was great, fairly quiet. There was some vibration at low cadence on smooth surfaces each time the pedals reached horizontal positions. It didn’t seem like it was meant to be there but at high cadence it vanished. I didn’t detect any clunking or rattling when descending fast down rocky terrain.

On my hardtail I have to be very careful with line choices but this Canyon simply eats everything in its path.

Not much to say about the Shimano XT brakes apart from they worked and stopped the bike quickly

The 12 speed Shimano SLX cassette and XT mech worked brilliantly. On my Cube hardtail the gears clunk when I change them but here they were a gentle click. I’m not sure about the gear ratios but the ability of this bike to climb was very impressive.

With 4 solid hours of blasting up and down hills the battery still had 2 bars left and it only had 4 bars to begin with when I picked it up. Quite impressive.

So overall my opinion of a full sus ebike?

It was kind of what I expected if I’m honest. I knew it was going to be better and more comfortable.

Was it more fun than my hardtail? Of course.

The cost is almost 3 times my hardtail. Did I get 3 times more enjoyment? Probably not but it was fun.

Will my next bike be a full suspension?

Absolutely 100%

 

[lightning]

That bike looks great, l've been riding full suspension since 2013 but have just got an Ebike
l thought l would ride both, but the Ebike is so
much fun that my regular bike hasn't seen the light of day since.

l do keep the assist in the low settings so l still feel l've done a ride, with the result that the battery is lasting three rides before l
have to charge it.

 

[Planemo]

Yep, another one here who will never go back to hardtail. Even just riding on the road makes sense what with up and down kerbs etc and the weight difference (to the naysayers) is surprising. To put it into context, my last hardtail was a Spesh Hardrock. I decided to convert it to full sus so found a second hand Giant Trance frame (with shock) on the bay, I've no idea what year it was but I think around 2009. When I had stripped down the Hardrock I weighed both frames just out of curiosity. The Trance was heavier by a matter of a few grams (including the shock). I was stunned. Oh and the Hardrock was a small, the Trance a large. And obvs the Trance had the beefier tapered headstock and all the tubing was beefier too. I guess thats progress for you.

Adding electric to a full sus just makes it even better. You really do end up with a bike that will do anything.

I do of course get the benefits of specialist bikes (jump bikes/full road bikes etc) but an electric full sus really is a jack of all trades

I did a road ride the other day (would seem madness on a 180/160 EMTB) but I enjoyed it a lot and was comfy throughout. I did 35 miles and the 3rd (out of 5) bars had just clicked off when I arrived home. So it's prob good for 50+ miles. It just takes me wherever I want to go, be that road, trail or mountain.