Originally Posted by
alan s
If this were true, no one would be riding bikes with rigid forks (road bikes and non-suspension hybrids), which in my estimation are at least 75% of the commuting bikes out there. If you are overweight and put too much weight on your hands and wrists you may feel the larger bumps more with a rigid fork and develop pain or injury, but this is not an issue for most reasonably fit riders. Under typical commuting conditions on roads and MUPs, the suspension actually does not move much, if at all, except when climbing out of the saddle, which is when you really don't want it to move.
I ride a carbon fiber road bike and commute on an aluminum mountain bike with a rigid steel fork, and there is not much difference in ride comfort on the same roads and MUPs. It most definitely has not increased the strain on my arms, wrists or hands. I changed to a rigid fork last winter, and hung onto the suspension fork for a couple months, but trashed it when I decided there was no going back. BTW, I put in 150 miles a week at max tire pressure.
As I said, it is true for my conditions of riding. I don't know what your roads are like, what is your weight, your fitness, or your bumps and potholes tolerance level. You are right most commuting bikes have rigid forks, but I don't see them all too often riding hard around potholed roads. I tend to ride hard, and keep up with the traffic as much as I can, over potholes, grates, cracked road, bumps etc. There is no time to evade all of that while being boxed in between cars and trucks. I had a few situations earlier when I was rigid rigid forks that some bumps almost whacked me out of balance so far as to fall, and now with a proper quality suspension fork, I can confidently go over all of that with some slight shaking, nothing more. From what I can see - most of the people riding rigid forks do so: - on a much better terrain then me, better roads and all, -weight considerably less, -and do not hold 15 mph average with regular cruising speed of about 23 mph on flat, over hilly terrain with badly broken surface. So considering everything, I definitively cannot agree with your "one-size-fits-all" approach to forks.