SuspiciousFishI depends on your riding style and what you are doing. I actually agree with Skierman on this one only because I used to race and for me the smoothest line is the fastest line. That and any time you hit a rock you up the chances of a flat that can cost you a race. That is part of what makes racing fun, it forces you to have really smart line selection and finding out how to eek out a few seconds of advantage on each part of the course.
For instance say there is a short really technical climb, on the pre-ride I will pick the line I want to take and an alternate line that is doable. Come race day, you are in the lead and trailed closely by your competitor. You see a few people in another class clogged up on the course on that technical section on the best line. So you crank over, hit the alt line that only you can ride because you practiced it 10x yesterday. Your competitor behind you gets stuck behind the crowd and has to wait or dismount and run around them. Boom, you just won yourself 20-30 seconds. You also got far enough ahead to break the sight line which can be significantly demoralizing, especially late in the race.
However, if you are just screwing around and want to jib of rocks etc then having full suspension can boost your confidence to hit things you otherwise wouldnt.
I could see that, I guess im not so much talking about a race scenario, but just overall upping your technical skill.
I learned mountain biking on a hardtail, I got pretty damn good on it, but my mindset when it came to line choices was if theres a rock avoid it, like you said going for the smoothest line, my eyes would go straight to the smoothest looking path and go with that. the problem is, theres a shit ton of scenarios where you need to slow to turn around a rock vs ride over it, the more your front wheels turning in techy sections the more it wants to hang up, deflect, tuck in and send you over the bars, etc. your front wheel, especially with suspension, likes to hit shit straight on.
when i got my first 6" bike, it was a pain in the ass to try and muscle around the avoid everything, so i pretty quickly figured out i need to stop avoiding stuff and just go over it. basically go for the straightest/simplest line. and it totally changed my mindset and approach to line choice. say if theres a 3ft rock in the middle of the trail, on my hardtail, id slow enough to get around it, on my full suspension id stay off the brakes and just roll over it. Or say you're approaching a left hander, the left side of trail is smooth, but you've gotta pinch the entry, thus slow down to make the same corner, and the right side opens up the entry much more, but its chunky, rocky and sketchy. on the hardtail i'd always go for the left smoother line, full suspension, id look for a way to make the right line work by looking for one spot with support to make the direction change so i can free up the bike through the rest of the chunk.
And now when i go back to a hardtail, or now my rigid, i know those lines are at least a possibility, some like you said you're probably risking a flat, or are just too damn chunky or techy to do it. but a TON of those lines do work, its not as smooth, but it lets you stay off the brakes, open up corners, eliminate unnecessary corners, or corners all together, so i think it can show you faster lines on a hardtail too. and now that you try those lines on a hardtail or rigid, it shows what you're doing wrong with your body position, not staying loose on the bike etc.. which carries over to a full suspension, so they both compliment each
other pretty well.
