Hi mcrobinson. I'm new too, and suprisingly your post could almost be me! Except

- I'm further south (San Jose area not Berkeley)
- I'm commuting daily (4x / wk) up and down San Tomas Expressway on my mountain
bike conversion (GT with WTB wheels and Panaracer Pasaela 26x1.25" tires for the road)
- I rode a Trek 520 at Chain Reaction on Saturday and pretty much eliminated it from
the running due to the oddness of the bar-end shifters
- The other contenders for me are the Bianchi and Jamis Nova -- based on the recs in
this forum

I agree that the conversations here are excellent, nice to know I'm not alone in this
particular cyc-osis...