[bluecalm]

I feel the same about suspension but maybe it's just very hard to design. It would need to be very light and aero to make it worth it for road bikes which are pretty great on roads as they are. For gravel there is the Lauf suspension thing and the new light/short suspension forks but I am not surprised they are not very popular as a suspension fork means regular expensive maintenance. Why not just slap 2+ inch MTB tires on the bike instead?

[seadan83]

You may want to look into dropper seat posts. They have road versions that are relatively stiff.

Suspension weighs like 2 lbs (_very_ heavy) and can fail/needs maintenance, and for small bumps the shock absorber moving around loses a lot of power transfer. Nicer suspensions have lock outs so you can disable the suspension on roads and flip it back on when you're back in the mountains.

Fir road only, I don't think suspension ever would make sense. Fatter tires and a (for road) dropper seat post will likely give you all the suspension you need with little penalty

[ActorNightly]

Yep, for the front you can use something like lauf, which can be made more aerodynamic with smaller travel for road application.

For the rear same idea, make the seat stay and chainstay meet earlier and mount the axle mounting dropouts on carbon leaf springs in the same way.

You can also add a cable tensioning system to both suspension, which can be used as a lockout to make the bike more efficient.

[latchkey]

Lauf owner here (with the weirdo front fork). Absolutely love it!