Here's the way I see it... If your heart is set on the FS, buy it... No amount of logical reasoning we can do with you is going to change your mind otherwise. But I will agree with everyone here that if you actually want to become a better rider, you should start out with a HT. Basically look at it this way... With a HT, you feel all the bumps and learn to react to them (and be proactive about getting over and through them).. with a FS, you don't learn how you should react to the bumps and obstacles because the bike just soaks them up and isolates you from them. But as I said.. buy what you want. A HT will help you develop more as a rider and probably be a bit faster in most cases, but a FS may be more "comfortable" because it soaks up the bumps.