That ship has sailed, but thank you for the offer.

I think a lot of people would agree. But I'm inclined to see suspension on a folding bike as a marketing gimmick more than anything else. I've gone through several folding bikes in the last dozen years. Some of them came with suspension forks. I upgraded to a rigid fork immediately. A folding bike doesn't need that stuff any more than the bikes randonneurs ride. That said, I have never done a brevet on my folding bike. I should try it sometime.

This is about gravel biking, so not specifically addressing the question, but the moral of the advice is: wider and softer equals a better and faster ride. https://www.renehersecycles.com/ted-...-gravel-tires/

I'm familiar with Jan Heine's crusade for wider tires, and in fact I am riding wide-ish tires. But bikes have limits on how wide your tires can get, and I'm interested in other ways to stay comfortable on long days in the saddle.

One suggestion I have is to shift up a gear occasionally, especially if the road is rough. This unweights your behind. A lot of people use aero bars for comfort, and that has appealed to me. I think arms and hands are the biggest problem for most long distance cyclists.

But we're all different. Don't let anyone talk you out of a suspension seat post if you want to try one. People hate on suspension stems, but companies keep popping up to try to sell them. So someone might get it right. Just because nobody is using them doesnt' mean it will not work for you.

How wide are your tires and what is the maximum you can fit in your frame and fork?

Bike touring where I have long days in the saddle, day after day after day after day, for pavement trips I use 37mm or 40mm wide tires. I would not want anything narrower and for a trip with a lot of non-paved riding I will use 50 or 57mm wide tires. Brevets I use 32mm width on a steel frame bike that uses rim brakes.

A friend of mine did not like the harsh ride of his aluminum bike, he bought a steel frame bike with rim brakes that made him much happier. I was surprised that he felt that much of a difference, but he really liked long distance rides on the steel bike much more.

My current frame has an advertised max of 30-mm tires. I'm running 32-mm tires, which are fine as long as the rear wheel doesn't get knocked out of true (it's very close to the front mech pull). This is on an aluminum "all road" frame with a carbon fork, which seems a lot more forgiving than my steel racing bike.

I have a RedShift suspension stem and think it’s great. It works so well that I forget it’s there.

The redshift looks pretty interesting. Might have been nice on the Mac 'n' Cheese, There was one road we were on that had expansion joints every 20 feet for many, many miles. Finally over the numbness from that 2 years later.

I didn't notice! But then again I was riding 53 mm tires. There were some pretty bad roads on LOL as well, which I did notice. So far, no regrets about my big fat tires.

Even with giant tires, I can't believe you didn't notice, it was after the stop at the bar with the bag lunch. Although there is a similar road on my fleche route that did go a lot better the year I rode it on 40mm tires.

About a year ago I found a 20" wheel Citizen folding bike with the rear suspension that needed work. I saw one on ebay selling for 600+. So I decided to pick it up fix it to resell. At one point I seriously considered putting a 5 speed igh w rear drum brake drivetrain and mid drive ebike kit on it. The fork had a 1 1/8 steerer tube so upgrading the front fork would have been possible(although finding a sus fork for 20" wheels that would result in a reasonable rake might have been difficult).

I had all the parts to fix it up and ended up rebuilding the rear wheel(the spokes were shot & the rear hub had an obscure OLD), replaced the 6 speed freewheel and shifter and overhauled all the bearings (wheels , BB and headset). I also replaced the original linear pull brakes with some tektro take offs I had & replaced the rear shock with a DNM coil shock I had.
The suspension was actually very plush for a bike having 20" wheels and no front suspension. I was extremely suprised how much that rear suspension soaked up. The guy that took it off my hands was in love with it and I believe still uses it for bar hopping down the beach.

I have the Redshift Seatpost and I weight around 248lbs. I have the springs maxed all the way out for load, but I feel like I'm constantly bouncing on the saddle. I have only taken it on 3 short test rides, but we'll see if I can stand that over time. I am sure it is way different for lighter riders because I've read loads of reviews and everyone seems to favor it.

It's been a while since I checked in on this thread. I did wind up getting the Shockstop seatpost and stem. The stem's effects are subtle, IMO. The seatpost makes a bigger difference, and I've got it set pretty firm. Both of them really smooth out textured pavement—there's something about the frequency and amplitude of the vibrations that they seem to be perfectly optimized for. The only time I really notice bobbing on the seatpost is when I'm mashing at low cadence on very smooth pavement.

Both of them are high-quality products. I don't see any slop in the pivots. The stem doesn't mess up the bike's handling. The seatpost is admittedly very heavy.

Yeah. For comparison, I weigh 153 lb.

Specialized has a recent patient application for a suspension seatpost.

Their older gooseneck suspension post helps. It is the CG-R Carbon. Not sure it if is made anymore. I have one of those on a magnesium framed bike, works i combo very well on chip sealed roads.

Chip seal where it is just a rough road but not a lot of physical displacement. I find that the Brooks Conquest saddle I have on most of my bikes is just fine. I am guessing that the springs give me about 5mm of displacement when I put my 180 pounds on it. The springs are quite stiff, they won't help much on a big bump or a pot hole, but seem to help on vibration.

I just went to Brooks site to get a link to post, but it appears that the Conquest is out of production again. Here is a good description.
VeloBase.com - Component: Brooks Conquest

It was taken out of production roughly a decade ago, then brought back several years later, but appears to be gone again.

I bought a Satori Animaris suspension seatpost to swap between my gravel / XC bike . The idea was to offer something which smooths out the bumps as I transition weight from bottom bracket and saddle at different watt outputs. It becomes difficult to maintain 700w steady for hours with minimal weight in the saddle. The seatpost works imperceptibly, with arguably more noticeable increase in performance rather than actual comfort .. which was my intention. The spring is tuned very stiff, even for a 190lb rider.

Next, I ordered a Kinekt suspension stem, which happened to be available in the exact length that I needed. I am overall extremely impressed. The overall result is now a machine that I feel much more in tune with, while literally ripping up single/double track , with the rear tire squirreling about for traction in the loose sand.

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I put a Redshift suspension stem and a flat topped carbon aero bar onto my upright. The bar is pretty flexible compared to any round bar that I have owned and the elastomers in the stem definitely move when I hit a bump. The combo is a huge improvement for me. Another surprising comfort factor is how the brake hoods transition to the handlebars, there is a nice flat area where the pad of my palm can rest. The nerves in my hands in the words of the Doc who did my last EMG study, "the nerves in your hands are shot"......they must hurt. I do not even wear gloves with this setup, bizarre. The only downside are funny looks I get because the combo isn't rando.

Since this thread has come back, again ...

If anyone is interested in suspension seatposts, this was published about a year ago but probably is still valid. But, this site is oriented more towards touring, thus this might offer more suspension than most long distance pavement riders want.
https://www.cyclingabout.com/best-su...g-bikepacking/

I have a sprung Brooks saddle (Conquest) and 32mm tires on my rando bike, that is all the suspension that I need.

But I do have a cheap telescoping suspension seatpost on my heavy duty touring bike that often goes off road or on gravel.

I doubt it's that, randos in general have some of the weirdest setups of any group of cyclists I'm familiar with. It's probably because you weren't putting out 700 watts.

If I go back to ride in Wisconsin/Michigan, I might have to get a redshift stem. I have never had numb hands for as long as I did after the Mac 'n' Cheese 1200. There was one road that went on seemingly forever with expansion joints every 45 feet.

Lots of this sort of stuff will start coming over from the gravel world... canyon has those funny hover bars that have quite a bit of give on the top, I was surprised when I saw it on a buddy's bike. Frost heave on the roads in Ontario is brutal on the hands too, usually it's not as regular as expansion joints but there's not a lot of concrete roads like Michigan... one of my least favourite things about driving through Michigan is all concrete roads.

In my experience with the Kinekt stem, it only gave enough dampening on my 650b gravel bike to take maybe 55 or 60% from the worst of the front end impacts while ripping singletrack. It seems like the goal is to fluidly maintain a safe and balanced handlebar position while your weight shifts around, such as tackling a sharp turn through uneven terrain. more for performance rather than comfort,I l(maybe because that's how I ride this bike?) it minimizes vibration and subtly adjusts stem angle to keep you in control.

Kinekt stem
 

Anyone with a Kinekt stem, wondering if the movement would do anything to the hydraulic brake lines liking stress on joint that it might get a leak with constant movement.

No