My expedition bike can use a rigid fork or a suspension fork. I am planning a tour this summer (short, a bit over a week) that I would use my suspension fork. Instead of trying to figure out how to put gear on the front of the bike, I bought bigger rear panniers for this trip, rated at 58 liters, which compared to my 40 liter (rated volume) Backrollers gives me an extra 18 liters on back. And a very cheap frame bag to fit in the triangle that I think will hold about 6 liters that only reduces my water bottle cage count by one. Some bikes do not handle well with an unbalanced load, but I think mine will handle fine with a very heavy load on the back with minimal weight on front.