There are things that I don't have to try out. For example, I don't want to emulate Masao Gunji from Japan. The retired police officer collects Hello Kitty plush cats and has a total of 5,169 of them. I also don't have to try out a live erotic act in front of an audience, sausage with vanilla sauce, a trip to Novosibirsk in a minibus or a coma binge at the bull run in Pamplona. I don't want to shave off my eyebrows, have "Hey Dude!" tattooed on my back or wander through Mogadishu in a Donald Trump costume - and I don't want to try out a freeride hardtail. At least that's what I thought. But then suddenly there were two of these "hard tails" in our FREERIDE cellar, one with 27.5-inch wheels, the other with 29-inch legs. Both bikes: Ghost, model Asket - recently praised by our sister magazine BIKE and voted test winner by the magazine World of Mountainbiking. Ghost man Maxi Dickerhoff had brought the bikes with him with the comment: "The dudes from FREERIDE might like these!" Really? Of course, these speedsters have nothing in common with the hardtail on which I rode my first mountain bike tour: these hardtails are designed for aggressive trail riding, robust enough for stunts and jumps, have a special geometry (e.g. 66 degree head angle, long main frame) and unprecedented handling, the manufacturer said. In other words: freeride hardtails.
For me, hardtails were strange intermediate steps in evolution until something better was invented. Like the Neanderthals. Or solid rubber tyres. Along the lines of: Not bad for now, but it's certainly not the final solution. It's not clear to me why I should ride off-road with a rigid rear end when suspension is better. To find out, I ask my colleagues. In the BIKE editorial team, there are those innovation-shy traditionalists who ride hardtail with a passion. Henri Lesewitz, for example. He explains it to me like this: "Riding a fully in moderate terrain is like hunting rabbits with a machine gun - every idiot can hit something. Where's the challenge when the suspension turns every root carpet into a marble run? That's boring. That's why I ride a hardtail." Ah, I see! Test editor Stefan Loibl says: "Lighter, faster, more efficient and technically more demanding." Sounds plausible.
Okay, enough research, now it's time to try it out. Laurin and I set off on the trail ride together so that we can swap bikes at lightning speed and also check which wheel size suits us better: 29 inch or 27.5 inch. The riding position is comfortable on both bikes, the wide cockpit is pleasing. But even the first bunny hop is a bump. The take-off works, but I hit my back on landing. Clonk! The Asket costs just under € 2000 and weighs 11.5 kilos - a full-suspension trail bike is also available from the mail-order company for this price, but it weighs an impressive 2 kilos more. I can feel this on the trail: the Asket scurries off and accelerates so easily that I'm happy to sprint. Only a few have enduro terrain within reach, the majority ride on tame trails like we do on the Isar. Ideal terrain for these hardtails for aggressive trail riding - but the first root carpets give me aggressive kicks in the arse and I begin to understand the meaning of the name. Everything that is easy on a fully is tougher here. The off-road jump over the boulders into the flat, the trail over rough branches, dirt edges, root loops. Nothing flops, it sounds and clunks. Again and again, the terrain forces me out of the saddle and although I flex my knees like a yogi, my whole body shakes so much that my helmet wobbles and my contact lenses shake. The 29er clearly cuts a better figure here. It rolls more confidently, but doesn't seem any more sluggish than the 27.5-inch Asket when cornering fast. "Freeride genes or not - this is and remains a hardtail", Laurin had just said and I prove it to myself with the Gap Jump. This 2.5 metre drop is one of the few freeride highlights on our Isar loop and is an easy exercise with the fully. Now, without suspension, not only does your pulse jump, but so does your rear end. Bam! The handlebars twitch in your hands, man and machine shake, your facial features slip away for a brief moment. What pilots say applies here: "Every landing you walk away, is a good landing!" In German: The main thing is down. So this is the much-vaunted "input" from the ground that hardtail hardliners appreciate so much. At some point, the test ride comes to an end. The intervertebral discs are ringing. The wrists are buzzing. Our lower backs are aching. It was fun - but we always enjoy cycling. We all agree: next time with full suspension again!
ConclusionYou can have fun with a trail hardtail - and the Asket is definitely a strong representative of this category - but for me the lack of full suspension is and remains a brake on fun. Given the choice, I would choose the 29er, because it rides more comfortably without sacrificing handling.
TECHNICAL DATA
Ghost Asket 7 AL 27.5 inch
MANUFACTURER INFORMATION
Distribution Ghost
Info www.ghost-bikes.com
Material/sizes Al/S, M, L,XL
Price/weight without pedals 1999 Euro/11.5 kg
MEASURED DATA
Front suspension travel 130 mm
Rear suspension system Hardtail
EQUIPMENT
Fork Fox 34 Float Performance Elite
Cranks/gears Shimano SLX/Shimano SLX
Brake system Shimano SLX
Impellers Race Face ARC 27 system wheelset
Tyres Schwalbe Nobby Nic Evo Snakeskin TrailStar 2.35
Reach 423 mm
Stack 604 mm
BB-Drop -45 mm
The opinions of the testers
Laurin Lehner (30), FREERIDE: "A trail hardtail is and remains a hardtail. The freeride geometry can't change that. The bikes may have a large fan base - but I'm not one of them."
Henri Lesewitz (45), BIKE purist: "Hardtails are freedom. Fullys are ballast. With fullys, you let the technology take care of things that are actually the job of your reflexes. The happiness factor when biking can be measured by analysing your blood. And in order to achieve the endorphin rush that I get on a normal trail with a hardtail, I have to ride down a real bone-crushing track with a fully. The joke: with a fully, the bone-crushing track feels like a normal trail with a hardtail."
Stefan Loibl (30), BIKE tester: "Light and uncomplicated. A fully in the same price range weighs a good 2 kilos more. As I also like to ride uphill and not just downhill, the trail hardtail is the ideal fun machine for me."
Stefan Frey (33), BIKE tester: "A trail hardtail has everything I need. It is drive-efficient and does everything. It forces me to ride cleanly. With a hardtail, I can feel the terrain where I would float over it like a hovercraft with a fully."
Dimitri Lehner
Editor
