Why Front Suspension is Good for Street Riding

It's not for comfort, you pansy. Suspension allows you to go faster.

Imagine a bicycle vector diagram with an arrow pointing forward from the front axle, the length corresponding to the momentum of bike and rider.

The bike encounters a small square obstacle on road. Then an arrow points up from the axle. Length corresponding to weight raised. This shortens the forward momentum arrow. If the weight raised is the entire bike and rider, the forward momentum arrow will be shortened considerably. If the weight raised is only the wheel and lower fork, the forward arrow will be shortened very little, indicating conserved forward momentum.

There is a weight and cost penalty. The cost I cannot refute. However, the weight difference between a light suspension fork and a standard rigid steel fork is not much, about 8 to 12 oz. or 230 to 340 gm. The preserved momentum far supercedes the energy lost to carrying that extra pound.

And on a quantum level, there is some energy lost to tiny bits of friction of the internal mechanism of the suspension. It will be lost as heat. This appears to be negligible, as forks don't heat up much.

A front fork rocks on the street. A racing motorcycle would never run a rigid fork, though you can find rigid forks on minibikes. Streets are never perfectly smooth and often rough. A light suspension fork will allow a street rider to go much faster, especially while cornering, and to more easily maintain that high speed.