Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - adding a headshock gonna work?

Hi,

recently bought a Cannondale Bad Boy Disc.
The bike is a really nice ride. Super fast, but I noticed my hands are hurting at the end of the day.
I was thinking to replace the fork with Super Fatty Ultra DLR. It has 80mm travel. Not sure though if that is gonna make it too high as the frame is not really a mountain bike frame.
Can anybody adivse me a bit?

Thank you.

Are you wearing gloves? I would think yes, but one never knows. Do you plan to make this a dedicated off road bike? Cause a shock fork would really take away the speed you see on the road and make you work like a muther doing it.

Before sinking that much money into treating the symptom, get fitted properly and look at your seat angle. Sore hands, elbows, and shoulders are a sign the seat nose needs to be angled up a slight bit, usually 5 degrees or less.

Good point. I had to play with the seat and bar positions a lot on my caad until I found the sweet spot.

For me sore hands just came from not having many hand positions on riser or flat handlebars. I got some trekking bars from Nashbar (http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?sku=9756), which solved the problem. If you're riding on the road I suspect not having suspension is definitely not what's giving you sore hands. You may try some bar ends, even though they are supposedly taboo on riser bars (who cares?).

Sore hands and arms and shoulders may also be a symptom of having a tight "death grip" on the bars. Ideally, you want your hands and arms to be a bit relaxed so that every imperfection in the road isn't transmitted directly to your hands. If you're prone to the death grip, you may find that different grips or handlebar tape help. Look for something with a bit of gel or padding.

That said, if you decide you want a new fork you need to know the distance from the center of your axle to the crown race. Ideally, the numbers for your replacement fork should be similar to the stock fork. If not, you may find the handling of the bike changes dramatically... and not necessarily in a good way. The good news is that many "mountain" bikes with rigid forks are designed so that the fork can be replaced with a suspension fork that has 80 or 100mm of travel. If you're riding off-road trails, this is a reasonable upgrade to consider. If you're riding on the road, you probably want to find a different solution.

That is a really cool bike without the shock, and it would be a real waste to put a shock on it imo. The hand issues may be due to seat height, perhaps seat is to high and to much pressure on hands. Like someone else said try to get it properly fitted.

Actually I am only wearing hiking gloves right now.
Believe it or not, I can't find gloves my size.
I live in Tokyo and the biggest size they sell here is equivalent to a US size M.
If you could recommend decent gloves, I'd try online.
Also, I am not planning on taking the bike off road at all.
Just commute to work and trips around Tokyo(road).
I didn't think that the 80mm headshok would make such a big difference in speed.

Before sinking that much money into treating the symptom, get fitted properly and look at your seat angle. Sore hands, elbows, and shoulders are a sign the seat nose needs to be angled up a slight bit, usually 5 degrees or less.

Great, thanks for the tip.
The seat is horizontal right now.
I think I also used to sit too high. My butt used to hurt but that got much much better once I adjusted the seat hight.
Right now it's really only the palm of my hand.
The grip on the handle bar looks pretty shock absorbant already, but my hands still hurt at the end of the day.

For me sore hands just came from not having many hand positions on riser or flat handlebars. I got some trekking bars from Nashbar (http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?sku=9756), which solved the problem. If you're riding on the road I suspect not having suspension is definitely not what's giving you sore hands. You may try some bar ends, even though they are supposedly taboo on riser bars (who cares?).
Interesting. Thanks for the reply.
Mine is a riser handlebar I guess (since it's not exactly flat).
Well, I can feel when my hands start to hurt.
When i ride over little bumps or uneven surface on the street.
I was riding my friend's bike one day and didn't feel it as much.
He had thicker tires and a slightly wider saddle.
I have the standard saddle that comes with the bad boy. (Selle Royal Viper RVL Chromoly)
quite slim I have to say, but padding seems OK.
My tires are thin, too. (700 x 28c)
I originally thought this is going to be nice as it'll give me speed, but it's starting to hurt.