re: Bike people: need advice.

A suspension fork is going to waste a lot of your energy if you are riding on the road. A rigid bike lets you transfer power more efficiently. But if you go off road, the suspension will be helpful.

I don't exactly know what type of bike you are looking at, but I know you can do a lot to a road bike to have it "fit" to you. You can swap stem length and angle to adjust your body position. I don't know much about swapping those out to get more upright as most people are trying to drop them to get more aerodynamic, but I would assume there are parts out there to do the opposite. I've seen some guys riding in a very upright position with a noticeably different stem/handlebar geometry. I doubt their bikes were mass produced that way.