Wow, tons of great info. Good technical stuff from Adrian and OldSkool to ponder and much common sense from Tom for when I finally get back to the store. I'm happy to hear it did such great things for your Health Adrian. I don't have any risk categories yet but I do need to work off my winter beer store as it was a lousy winter for skiiing.
To answer some questions or speculations from your posts:
I'm pretty handy on bikes and would happily buy used but nothing within a decent distance has been listed for some time now. I'm not interested in having a used bike shipped to me unseen. I have looked into other brands but in the absence of anything used catching my eye, I would like to buy from a decent, local shop so my choices are limited to
Rocky Mountain
Specialized
Opus and
Giant
These are about the only shop sold, hybrid brands available outside of a 4hr drive. A mall-type sporting goods store carries Trek and some others but nobody there has enough knowledge to answer my most basic of questions so I just simply won't buy from them.
Thanks again,
Hopefully, the rain will hold off Saturday and I can take a couple more for a spin.
