was launched last summer as part of the 2021 range.

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META HT AM : Press Reviews




Pinkbike: 30 Days on a META HT AM RACE - The Lessons



Tom Bradshaw is a journalist at Pinkbike. Used to riding Whistler trails, close to the magazine's offices, he decided to test a different bike to the trail/enduro models he’s been used to riding. He took a hardtail, the META HT AM RACE! What lessons can be learned from it? Here’s what he said.

Even if he does admit to having been a little apprehensive by the lack of suspension and to having feared being slower than he would be with a full suspension ride, during his first rides he started learning some valuable lessons.

“What I found I had to do was to look way further ahead to find any braking opportunity. A really valuable lesson that you sometimes don’t have the opportunity to learn on the full suspension.”

“I started riding the hardtail taking the conservative easy lines, but with the correct entry speed, balance and timing of when I was unweighting, I could still take the aggressive lines I like to on the trail bike.”

“One of the things I’ve loved learning the most about on the hardtail is pumping. Without the complication of the rear shock, there were 2 things I was focusing on. Firstly, I could tell how efficient my pumping was without the energy being wasted in the rear the shock. Secondly, it was really easy to work on the timing of my pumping. That was because without the rear shock, I was getting immediate feedback on whether I’d timed my pumps right or wrong. It’s important to have your timing right on any bike because that’s how you’re going to generate free speed.”

After 30 days of riding only a hardtail and seeing his riding style radically change, Tom Bradshaw explains his time differences on track. In 30 days, he shaved 5 seconds off the clock between the first and the last day of the test! "It doesn’t matter what bike you’re on, you can still have fun. And it’s good to take it back to the basics,” concludes the journalist.