fork upgrade
 

my girl friend has a 09 cannondale quick 6. she would like to upgrade the front fork to something nicer. other then the standard cannondale carbon fork, can we upgrade it to a suspension style fork? the bike is not ridden off road but she did have a shock fork on her last bike and really preferred it due to a smoother ride on our rails to trails system. anyone ever do anything like this?

I have a Cannondale Quick 6 too and was thinking of getting a Ritchey Comp Cross fork, since it is a carbon fork with linear pull/cantilever brake bosses already on it. Since you want a suspension based fork I would say your options are going to be limited. You could look into a 29er fork, but most of those use disc brakes, so you'd need to convert from linear pull in the front to disc brake, and you'd also need a disc brake wheel. Also, most of the suspension forks out there are pretty expensive, especially given the price of the bike. Perhaps you ought to look into a Cannondale Headshok fork? Either way, make sure there is a lockout on the suspension for times when you're cruising on flat, smooth road.

I don't see what the problem would be in changing to a suspension fork ... basicly you just take out the fork you have now and replace it with a light 700c suspension fork ... I have the suntour CR9v which I like quite a lot and is not too expensive.
I also don't see why"atx 6speed" says that your options are limited or that you need a 29-er fork ... you have a 700c rigid fork now so you basicly need a 700c suspension fork to replace it with.

^^^^ Yep.

If you can, measure the steerer tube of the existing fork - from the fork crown to the top of the tube under the cap. You can do it on the bike. The stock new length for many sus forks is about 255mm or so. Some hybrids (my Scott for example) have a head tube which is longer than MTB's and will need a 300mm steerer tube cut down a little. You may need to search for a longer 300mm steerer tube if you're over 252mm on the Cannondale.

If you're ok on length, a short travel road suspension fork is an easy swap. 1 1/8th", 700c, unthreaded, with brake bosses to suit. You may need a new star nut. Check the tube diameter of the current fork to make sure it is 1 1/8th unthreaded. (Duh!)

SunTour forks worked well on my last urban bike. The short travel forks are tuned for road use, so even without a lockout there's little pedal - bob or brake dive.

A cheaper fix though, could be a taller/fatter front tyre like a Schwalbe Marathon.

Is that an option?