Plot your gearing here.

What do you want to accomplish or what is the old setup lacking? In this day and age I'd just go to 1x11 or 1x12. Hey, I have a 2x10 SRAM GX on my hybrid and if you are really interested, send me a PM and I can sell you that and upgrade mine. It has 42/28 crank and 11-36 cassette.

A new freehub is proprietary to the hub, so that requires re-lacing the wheel and most likely buying new spokes. I assume you get the freehub because you currently have a freewheel?

Assuming your suspension fork idea cam from a lack of comfort, try larger tires and less pressure. You may be limited to 40 c or so, so check that first.