Hardtails are a wonderful bike and it’s a reason why a lot of us start out on them. They’re affordable. They are great for learning skills.

If you’re an expert they’re still really fun to just go hooning around in the winter on, but what kind of upgrades can you make to your hardtail to make it just a little bit better?

Today I’m going to take you through a few basic and not too expensive upgrades that you can do to your hardtail to make it just that little bit better.

Dropper Post

Now more than most bikes a hardtail is probably going to benefit from a dropper and that’s because you’ve got no rear suspension.

So, if you’re running your saddle up high, because that’s where it’s most comfortable and you start getting over some real bumpy terrain, jumping and go where you don’t want it to.

There is a little bit of difference between a hardtail and full suspension and to know the thing better you should know about hardtail vs full suspension.

A drop is no longer going to break the bike either. They’re actually pretty affordable these days with various cable-actuated ones, under a hundred quid or a hundred dollars.

If you’re like over in the old states there, they’re just going to give you the opportunity to drop that saddle out of the way so that when it gets really bumpy, you’re gonna have more maneuverable on your hardtail.

Actually, it does another thing go on to the days as well. When you have to stop and undo the bolt or the quick release, drop the saddle, put it back up at the end and It’s just a fast.

So, it just makes the ride more fluid and more fun as well.

Flat Pedals

When starting out mountain biking no matter what bike you ride. I would strongly suggest starting out on flat pedals.

We’re going to give you a little tip here, switching to clips eventually can be a really good idea. Starting with flats it’s just a safer option.

You’re learning new tricks and skills so crashes are unfortunately inevitable. So take your foot off the pedals quickly, easily, and safely is just the way forward being attached to your bike and that is no good when you start learning.

So, you’ve learned your beginner skills. You’re progressing a bit and you are getting pretty good. If you do say so yourself, it does mean things are getting a bit bumpy, a bit rowdier.

You’re venturing to some harder tracks, and you’re finding your feet jumping around, skipping about all over the place.

You might want to think about them switching to Clippy pedals. They’re going to keep you attached to them.

I know sounds scary but promise me with a bit of practice it isn’t, but it can give you a little bit more control and a bit more stability when you are riding.

Your feet aren’t going to be like bopping and bouncing around. They’re going to be attached. You can move the bike bunny hop it, but I will warn you It does take practice.

So don’t take that on too lightly and again, actually, there are tons of different clips, pedals, shoe combos out there. So really you having a good thing.

Tires

It wouldn’t be an upgrade article without the mention of tires. How do they relate to a hardtail? It’s all grip.

You haven’t got as much suspension sticking you to the ground so having a really good set of tires on can make a huge difference.

There’s nothing worse than just going out and constantly washing out or sliding around because the tires that come on your bike are just no good.

It’s one of the best places to start upgrading your hardtail bike, actually as well most bikes, it should be the only bit that’s touching the ground and It’s the only contact patch.

When you do buy a cheaper hardtail bike often manufacturer cheap tires on them to save some money there. So, putting some nice new knobbly tires on like this is going to make a difference.

When you are grading your tires on your hardtails you have a little think about the casing.

If you don’t want to go too thin, because if you do well, when it gets bumpy, especially out the back pinch punches and things like that are definitely more likely to happen.

I’ve got trail casing tire on this and you could go into a downhill casing if you want. It’s something working.

Tubeless

You are thinking of getting rid of those tubes inside there. So just do make sure that when you are buying tires, actually that they are tubeless-ready.

Now, a lot of tires these days are, so that shouldn’t be a problem, but make sure they are sending like tr on them for tubeless-ready or whatever, the manufacturer sort of states getting rid of the inner tube is a game-changer.

Rims these days are wider and tougher they’re often factory fitted with rim tapes. They already tubeless-ready, but you can also do this aftermarket as well as special rim tape that you put around and special valves as well. So fear not it’s not like if your hardtail hasn’t come to Australia, that it can’t be done It.

What else does going tubeless and tail then? Well, you’re going to need some sealant inside there, like a liquid latex that you’ve put in.

It basically coats the inside of the tire and any time you get a bit of a thorn or something sharp that goes through, or even a tear in the tire providing it’s not too big, it would actually seal up that hole, which is really clever these days.

There are lots of different sealants out there. A hundred percent need a sealant in there. Benefits of running no tubes. Well, actually you can run slightly lower pressures in your tires as well, lower pressures, equal, more grips. So that’s always a winner and actually, they’re also a bit lighter.

So, you’re going to save a bit of weight as well and where you might go up a bit of weight on the casing of the tire, you drop the tubes, so you drop a bit of weight so it’s almost neutral. If you like, if not a little bit lighter, again, another winner in my book.

Inserts

You’ve done your tires. You’ve gotten rid of the tubes. Congratulations. You are well on the way to getting way fewer punctures, but there’s a step-free insert.

I know these are fairly new things and they’re actually like a foam insert. If you like, that goes inside the tire and they’re there again to designed to help you stop damaging wheels, tires, and getting punctures again.

So, what does an inset actually do? Well, as I said, they’re generally a firm piece of foam that goes inside the tire all the way around the rim.

Some of them will help lock the bead of the tire in place. Some of them sort of float around inside there. So, what happens when you do run those lower pressure?

If you take a heavy hit to the tire and compress it, you’re not going to smash through and either puncture the tire or Marshall rim.

It’s actually liked a bit of dumping in between. So again, it means you can run lower pressures without fear of damaging your wheels.

Again, great on a hardtail, not necessarily needed front and back, you can run them just in the rare is when you’re picking up the front all the time, the rear is going to take the majority of those hits, but they are definitely something worth considering when upgrading parts of your hardtail bike.

Conclusion

Thank you very much for reading those are my beginner hardtail upgrade tips, a bit of a mouthful, but I hope you’ve managed to take some good ones away from it there and how fun shredding on your hardtail.

If you want to see more you can visit OutdoorXsports and don’t forget to hit the share button and I look forward to seeing you again.