Originally Posted by Poguemahone
As the shocks travel, they take energy away from your drivetrain. They also add weight to the bike, and really do little for the ride on pavement. You can avoid most any obstacle that would make shocks even mildly usefull by the simple expedient of paying attention.
Fenders are great if you intend to ride in the wet, or if you live in a wet climate, where such rides are unavoidable. Otherwise, they add some wind resistance to the ride. I'm setting up a single bike with them, especially after last year, where it seemed to rain here every other day.
Your roads are better than ours. While shocks don't do much good on smooth pavement, the road between my house and my job is horrible. Sorry for repeating myself, but the whole right lane is often covered with giant cracks, potholes, and poorly-patched potholes. Sometimes the left lane has the same problem. It is a bus route, and buses eat pavement. It is rougher than a lot of the off-road biking I used to do. I also used to live in a neighborhood with brick streets. Again, it was worst than driving off road. I usually avoid the road by taking a longer bike path, so I live withut the shocks. But if I were taking the most direct city street to work for my 5-8 mile commute, I'd be looking for a MTB with shocks.
I think fenders are close to a necessity if you drive in wet conditions.