It depends on the type of riding your going to be doing. Are you going on paved trails, crushed gravel trails, or streets? If mostly streets, what shape are they in? Will you be curb jumping at all? Personally, I don't have a lot of use for a suspension seat post, but in my town, our streets are horrible and I ride mostly on the streets. When I bought my bike, I was looking at the Trek 7500FX and the Gary Fisher Utopia - essentially the same bike but the Fisher had front suspension. After riding them both, I went with the Fisher Utopia just because of our streets. I haven't regretted the decision at all - I love my ride - but if the streets around here were somewhat smoother, I probably would have gone with the Trek. Let us know what you get - shopping for a new bike can be confusing, but it's a lot of fun to test ride them.