The roam 3 has the same fork as the roam 1. It also has better shifters and derailers than the escape 3. It's about $100 more.

I'm guessing none of those people ride a bike or have ridden a bike with one of these forks. The line about bouncing you all over the road is complete bull. Mine doesn't do that at all. It's smooth and soaks up the cracks, bumps and potholes. When I am on smoother pavement I lean down and lock it out on the fly and it's smooth sailing.

I read all the same remarks when I was researching my bike purchase and was going between the escape and the roam. The test rides are what convinced me. Riding over the potholes and cracks was jarring and rough even on the carbon forked bikes. As soon as I got on the roam it was like night and day. The detractors equate the suspension forks with mountain bike riding and that's not the intended use for the one on the roam. It is for rough road and city use and some light trail use and for that it's been perfect. As for weight, in this price range and intended use the difference is not going to be noticeable. My roam is 34 pounds with my bag, lights, water holders and new grips. It's 2 sizes bigger with bigger tires than my previous chromoly bike and it's about 6 pounds lighter.

I'm not trying to convince you to buy one or the other as it's about what you ultimately test ride and feel comfortable with. I am just trying to provide another viewpoint from someone who actually rides one of the bikes instead of bad mouthing it without actually using one.