So I'm looking to buy a mountain bike, I own a a Trek 7.3 already and I'm thinking of a few options.

1. Buy a new mountain bike and keep it stock
2. Buy a really cheap mountain bike and switch the 7.3's Deore over to that frame
3. Buy a suspension fork for the 7.3
4. Keep the 7.3 rigid and ride it on singletrack anyways


So I have two questions

Has anybody added a suspension fork to a 7.3? I know it will change the geometry and all, but could it be possible?

Or would the frame and fork be able to handle singletrack already? I'm just afraid of breaking the fork when riding some bumpy stuff.

Anybody's opinion would be awesome. I'm just looking to get a mountain bike to ride some singletrack and trails without any drops or anything like that. I'm just looking for a XC ride.

I thought about getting a fork for my Giant, but remember that your bike probably has 700c tires, which means 29er in mtn bike terms. I looked at 29er forks and they're all pretty expensive, like you could buy a decent used mtn bike for the same price expensive. Anything less is probably just a boat anchor.
You could just put grippier 29er tires on your rims and go non suspended. Suspension was just coming out when I first got into mtn biking. So I rode for years without it.

Well, I guess I qualify as "anybody" so buy a used MB for $200 or less. It is always nice to have at least one smooth rider around as well as a back up. I would not mess up your 7.3. You might decide you want to do some light drops some day or might have to.

The 7.3FX cannot fit a wide enough rear tire to make a fork swap even remotely worth considering.

You need a mountainbike. If you don't want two bikes, sell the 7.3 and get either a 29er MTB or a hybrid that has a suspension fork.