Originally Posted by
coolio
In terms of the U.S. mass market (xmart and the like) I'd be willing to bet that most new bikes sold today have some sort of suspension. By this I mean those hybrid uprights with a suspension front fork and some with a suspension seatpost. And, I'm not counting those cheap MTBs that have at least a front suspension fork. In the main, these are weekend riders that won't really put their bikes through the paces that people who frequent the BF forums would, though. However, they'd probably very satisfied in what they buy and the price they paid for their bikes.
I'd be willing to bet that most bikes bought at department stores/walmart by adults don't get ridden at all. Just like all those tread mills and gym memberships that gather dust....so I don't think there is any point looking at that data and surmising that a feature is of any value because people bought them. Secondly these bikes are sold for bottom dollar which means they have zero relation to the bikes we are talking about like a Brompton - which can easily exceed $2K when you bling it out...not even getting to the point of designing/building/selling a fully suspended Brompton. My final point is people buy those bikes not because they made a calculate choice based on performance vs their needs...they bought them because they were there buying pantyhose and happened to walk past the bike section - the colour was nice and price right - and it made them feel like they were doing something concrete about getting fatter and fatter each day. They would be just as happy with an equally well designed and executed rigid bike with balloon tires.