Originally Posted by
cyccommute
The snow at ski areas is walkable because they get out machines every night and compact it. Outside of a ski area, you can't walk on the snow. Even using snowshoes is difficult.
Not all forks are a hinderance at -45°. An air fork will probably still work...the shocks in cars are still functional. Changing to a lower viscosity oil would help. Or a spring fork like an old Manitou X-vert will work in any temperature. I have some experience with dry power snow along the Colorado Front Range. It's about all we get. I'd still use a suspended bike for dealing with it for the reasons that I gave above.
The shocks in our cars really don't work well at -45. It takes miles to warm them up and the tires are squared. And a bike doesn't have 3000lbs pushing it up and down.
The best suspension for these conditions is no suspension at all.
Now the fat bike rules!