It does indeed! I'm thinking it has something to do with the inherent stiffness difference of the materials. Aluminum can't flex much or it will fatigue soon, thus it can't dampen the incoming road vibrations very much. This is fine for a bike that gets ridden solely for the purpose of going fast which is where I think the Denali will ultimately end up going. But for my new bike, comfort is going to be key for sure since I'll be more focused on getting there comfortably rather than getting there fast.
On that note I'm giving serious consideration towards going to the bike shop tomorrow morning and getting a rack for it. I don't want to cut out my truck entirely (I love it too much) but I'd like to reduce it's usage a ton to save on gas as it seems the days of sub-$3 gasoline are gone. My only concern is whether or not I can keep up with commuting in the bitter cold long enough to offset the initial cost of the rack, and hopefully offset the cost of the bike as a whole. My guess is that if I kept riding until the end of the year I could make this entire bike purchase become basically free or very nearly so. But that's gonna be a lot of cold rides, for sure.
So that's the direction I'm thinking the new bike will go in...modifying it to make a good tourer/commuter. Future plans for the Denali? If I can ever get some spare cash around, look for STI shifters and possibly a carbon fork to drop another couple of pounds. Until then, the time is drawing close to where it's time to service the hubs and headset.
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