Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Part of your problem is that you took the suspension fork off the bike. I would bet that you were constantly washing out the front wheel which made going harder. A rigid fork makes the tire bounce off of everything it encounters which throws you off line. That's not good. A suspension fork will let the front wheel find its own path and not deflect so much. Add in a rear suspension and you'll gain traction. A fat bike would handle the job well because the tires float more than dig in but suspension would help in lieu of fat tires. It wouldn't hurt.
The reason the fork is off this winter bike is winter use. The suspension fork is a hindrance in the cold. At -45 there is no compression and it just doesn't work in the snow. I've ridden both my hardtail and a full suspension XC and rigid on both ends works the best for my conditions. Its hard to explain how snow acts at these temps. When I go to the rockies snowboarding the snow is very different. You can walk on it. The snow here is like dry powder.
But I solved all that today. I bought a Norco Bigfoot 6.2. I can hardly wait for the weekend.
At least we still have two months of winter left!