Im in the market for a new do all bike and wanted to potentially do bikepacking with it. I wanted a full suspension, but upon reading some posts most people recommend a hardtail instead since you can fit the bikepacking frame on it in comparison to the hardtail. Just to preface further the two bikes in the pictures are the two I was looking at.
by IcedColdMine
2 Comments
Hardtail. I will even go as far as saying the front suspension is unnecessary at best.
It depends on the routes you want to ride and amount of the stuff you pack. Gravel, ATB HT, Enduro HT, full-sus – each of them will shine in different terrain and with different load.
IMHO the most versatile would be some All Mountain HT with wide and fast-rolling tires. Something like Rose Bonero or the newest Merida Big.Trail600 (2025). That said, even those bikes have some limits – on roads they will be noticably slower than gravel (quick looks on various gpx recordings from my trips last season tells me that with enduro tires on roads my average was almost 17 km/h while with gravel on roads it was over 23 km/h) but you may ride into the terrain you wish you had full-sus bike (hardtails can ride through impressive chunk on downhills, but forget pedaling on the flat and rocky routes).