Hi all,

I've been here a little while now, and one thing I've noticed is a lot of people comment that for road cycling, a rigid front fork is the best approach, and the most often cited reason has been efficiency.

On Wednesday I had a front basket bracket break on my main commuter ('09 Giant Boulder), so for the past couple of days I've been commuting on my mountain bike ('12 Giant Talon 29 ER 0). Both are actually hard-tail mountain bikes with front suspension, the difference is the one I've switched over to has the ability to lock the front suspension, basically turning the front fork rigid. The bike doesn't get any lighter, but the front fork now shouldn't be absorbing any energy. The other one has an adjustment for the hardness of suspension but can't be locked out completely.

I tried this Thursday afternoon and Friday morning on my commute. I didn't notice any additional power, but one thing I did notice is just how rough Brisbane roads are without suspension. I wound up getting fed up of it yesterday afternoon and after climbing the first major hill, reached down to open the front suspension back up again for a more comfortable trip.

Is it just me, my set-up, or is there something I'm missing?