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I am planning on buying a new Full-Suspension Bike withing few months specially to use in hilly terrain. So far I've been to few hills around my home town, they are roughly 100-400 meters high.

What technical and geographical aspects should I consider while purchasing full suspension bike?

Full suspension bikes are very costly here in my country and not many use them also I am confused which one to go for. Full-suspension or proper downhill?

Activities I do on my current hard-tail is lots of small drops (up to 2-2.5 feet) staircases are normal. I want to do more longer jumps, up to several feet. I also want to do a little more aggressive downhill. I want a bike which is easy and affordable to maintain.

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    We won't do product recommendations, so don't expect "buy a BrandX bike" Thank you for stating your current riding experience. As the name implies, a Downhill bike is all about getting down a slope as fast as possible. They're less-good for going level or uphill. Sounds to me like you're after a full-suspension all-purpose bike. Your budget will tell you if you can afford new or if a second-hand one is more reachable.
    – Criggie ♦
    Aug 2, 2016 at 9:55
  • @Criggie thank you for suggestion I am not looking for any info related to brands or some thing, I want to know what specs I should research on Like if I must get a 200 mm suspensions or go with models with 120 mm travel / sport suspensions. I've never used any full-suspension mountain bike, options available are starting for lets say 100 ( currency) upto 1000, I can even spend 500 for bike but question is it worth spending 500 insted if I can go with 100 for start and later make upgrade as required.
    – Pushkar. M
    Aug 2, 2016 at 10:21
  • look at the price, brand, overal feel and look and then check comments about that bike on the internet. There are literally a tons of BSO that have full suspension but it will fall apart after the first jump.
    – kifli
    Aug 2, 2016 at 11:32
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    Good full suspension isn't cheap, and cheap full suspension isn't good (and cheap full suspension is usually worse than cheap hardtail or decent hardtail). In the US, full suspension requires probably 1300-1500 dollars (MSRP) at the entry level of decent quality for new bikes. An entry level hardtail has a MSRP of 400-500 dollars, so you're looking to spend 2.5-3x for a basic full suspension over a basic hardtail. I wouldn't be surprised if it was over 3x as expensive for a FS bike vs hardtail in India.
    – Batman
    Aug 2, 2016 at 15:57
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    Unfortunately "I want a bike which is easy and affordable to maintain" pretty much excludes FS. As already said, FS cost a lot more, and have a lot more moving parts (pivots and rear shock) to wear out and break. Not only that, these parts are expensive to maintain.
    – mattnz
    Aug 2, 2016 at 21:38

2 Answers 2

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There are a few questions to ask yourself. 90% of the time what sort of riding are you doing? Hike-a-bike where you'll repeatedly walk your bike up a hill and ride down, do you commute by bicycle, etc. If you want to use it solely for riding down hills and hucking off jumps and nothing else then maybe get a downhill rig. If you do any other form of riding at all don't get a downhill specific design. Their made to be ski lifted up mountains and then ridden down, that's about it.

From what i read though it sounds like an all mountain or all around trail bike would be ideal for you, something you can use the lockout's on the suspension to get around. Trying to ride up large steep hills on a downhill bike is pretty horrible and tiresome. You also loose a lot of work in the bob of the suspension if you're just tooling around town.

A good quality trail bike with 120-140mm suspension with lockout sounds like it would be right up your alley as far as the type of riding you're doing. The most important part of the suspension system is your body after all. But with 120-140mm of suspension that should be plenty to soak up what your doing but still be usable in other aspects and styles of riding as well.

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  • Thanks for the reply That was the kind of stuff I was Looking for, I am currently checking out terrains around my Locality, Mostly it is going to be a Urban Downhill and Hike-a-bike kind of thing, I will be using my current hard tail for commuting and other long ride, New Full Suspension bike would be used specially for doing crazy things like trying out jumps, (which I am still learning)
    – Pushkar. M
    Aug 3, 2016 at 7:15
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I would say do not go for a downhill bike as downhill bikes are designed to be used with a lift to get up the hill, not pedaling. For what you do now, a hardtail should be fine especially if full suspension is so costly.

If you are going for a full suspension, I'd go for a lower travel one as it would fit your needs better. So go for a low travel all-mountain, fine for climbing and great on the descents.

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