I didn't mean put a shock fork on this bike - I was talking about maybe getting a Trek DS. But yeah, I could imagine it have a mushy feel similar to the shock seat post I didn't like. I'm not too worried about speed. And I always pedal sitting down at a medium cadence, so I'm not always mashing the cranks trying to maximize speed, so I'm not sure the shocks would cost me a whole lot of power. While I'm not worried about high speed, I don't want to feel like I'm pedaling through molasses either. I do like the high psi feel of skinny smooth tires and how they help me glide. That's why I was thinking about getting a DS with fairly smooth tires and high psi so I can still glide, but have a shock to compensate during sudden jolts. Just some 1.5 inch slicks may better serve my purpose, and I'll learn the route better.

The Schwinn tourist has a lot of fork and chainstay clearance from what I can see. I'm just wondering what the rims would accept.