In the space of a weekend, my 2016 tour has become my 2015 tour. So, therefore, this year's tour will be done on my KHS Tempe 29er hardtail. Rear racks aren't a problem, I've had them on this bike before (but I need to replace them, that's why they're not on it now). However, I'm going to need front racks and I'm not sure what to look for to accommodate front shocks. I won't have the money to replace the front fork so that's not an option (and neither is my wish to swap back and forth). This won't be an expedition tour, just a week or so but it'll be in the bush (trails) for 3 days at a time so I'll have to carry a bit more than just food for one day and stopping at a diner won't be an option either (neither do I want it to be on any trip), therefore, I do believe that I'll need the extra space that front panniers will afford me and therefore I'll need a front rack to hang them.

Any suggestions?

Nevermind, it wasn't as difficult to find as I thought it would be. Many different companies offer suspension-compatible racks in with or without the shelf.

Your handling will suffer with the increase in unsprung weight.

Some racks are available that mount to the skewer instead of a fender dropout and mount to the cantilever bosses (if you have cantilever bosses on your fork). The Old Man Mountain Sherpa is the only rack that comes to mind, but there might be others out there. If you do not have cantilever bosses, hopefully someone else will be more helpful than me.

Tubus used to make one (maybe it was called a Swing?) but no longer available. I saw one of these on a bike on tour last summer, the gal that owned it said she keeps getting it repaired as they are no longer available.

If you don't have the panniers yet, consider going with a harness and dry bag system...

Krampus in its Element by mbeganyi, on Flickr

Simpler, lighter, and combined with your rear setup, might be a good balance on ease of use, cost, and adaptation to different styles of trip.

I use the Thule touring rack. It´s more stable then any other front rack/low rider i´ve tried. It fits on any thing, front or back.

Hi Mr Big Nickel,
MEC used to sell an inexpensive front suspension rack, I have it on my old mtn bike. I did a quick search for it but it may not be available anymore. It was about $25 and while the attachment stuff isnt high quality, it works alright and I have only had a light load on the front with it, so didnt give it a hard workout (and have only been on goodish paved roads)

I'll try to find some photos of it that I put up here when I mounted it, so you can see how it looks. Do some MEC searching and see if you can find it anywhere.

here are some pics, depending on the mounting system of your bags, it may or may not work, Look at the photos to see if there would be problems (could be a moot point if its not avail anymore)

I tried a couple versions out - but none were as nice as the Old Man Mountain racks that are compatible with front suspension. I'm sure there are other ones out there, but I stopped looking once I found the old man mountain stuff.

The OMM Sherpa looks nice, would be more than $150 here so in my case, I went cheap with the MEC because I knew I wouldn't use it much, nor put much on it.
I would still consider a Sherpa if the occasion merited it, and in the end, I suspect it would be easy to sell used for a good price as they seem to have a very good reputation for being very well made.

I also considered one after I got a pair of those really light Arkel Dry-Lite panniers, as the Sherpa has a top that the velcro Arkels could go on easily so you could use them up front. Would be overly robust for this use but it woiuld still be suitable for all kinds of panniers and all kinds of riding terrain and load weight as they seem really tough.

My expedition bike can use a rigid fork or a suspension fork. I am planning a tour this summer (short, a bit over a week) that I would use my suspension fork. Instead of trying to figure out how to put gear on the front of the bike, I bought bigger rear panniers for this trip, rated at 58 liters, which compared to my 40 liter (rated volume) Backrollers gives me an extra 18 liters on back. And a very cheap frame bag to fit in the triangle that I think will hold about 6 liters that only reduces my water bottle cage count by one. Some bikes do not handle well with an unbalanced load, but I think mine will handle fine with a very heavy load on the back with minimal weight on front.