Originally Posted by
hfbill
... When I get back on the 520 in the spring, the first thing I notice is how harsh the ride is on my shoulders etc with the rigid fork. Yes, you can lower the front tire pressure, but the trade off is that you increase rolling resistance by doing so. ....
I always run my front tires about 75 to 80 percent of the pressure that I have in the rear tire. A couple years ago I did a week long trip in West Texas that was on some really rough chip seal. I ran my front tires at about half the pressure that I had in the rear, it did not slow me down noticeably.
Originally Posted by
hfbill
.... Call me old school ,but I've never been a huge fan of compact frames, so I do wish someone would sell a steel touring frame with a horizontal top tube that is designed for an appropriate short travel suspension fork, but so far, I haven't found one.
Not sure what the importance of the horizontal top tube is, but there have been a few bikes that worked well with drop bars that could take a suspension fork.
I think that some years the Surly Troll could take a suspension fork, but I have never considered buying one so maybe my memory is wrong on that.
My Thorn Nomad Mk II was not intended for drop bar setups, but I have drop bars on mine. It was designed for either the solid fork that came with it or a 100mm suspension fork. It however is designed for only a Rohloff, so if you wanted derailleur gearing you are out of luck. I did have trouble finding a suspension fork for my Nomad, it had a headtube longer than many mountain bikes so some forks had too short of a steerer tube. The new Thorn Nomad Mk III does not take a suspension fork, once current inventory of the remaining Mk II versions are all sold, that option will be harder to get.
And lots of people have converted older hard tail mountain bikes to drop bars for touring.