Good, common-sense post by IKnowURider. I like it.
Two comments:
It's not just young newbies who come here for bicycle advice. I'm 2.5 times your age, and I was new at this when I joined the forum three years ago. I suspect there are many more members like me -- older and less knowledgeable about bikes. I'm very glad I found this resource, and the helpful people on it.
Second, it IS difficult in the beginning to absorb the advice of forum members, due to the sheer volume of sometimes conflicting posts, plus a new member's unfamiliarity with established members' backgrounds, tastes, experience. One can't tell at first which members have, say, worked in a bike shop, or won bike races, or ridden ten thousand miles, until it is mentioned in passing. These experiences form the basis for those members' advice, and also informs the reader that member is a subject matter expert.
That's why I try to remind myself that certain people on this board may have 30-40 years of bicycling and bicycle maintenance/rebuilding experience from which to draw their conclusions. I'll give them some leeway on their enthusiasm for upgraded componentry or frame composition.
Speaking of brutally honest --or just plain brutal -- I see a previous poster's handle is SaabSport, so I'm guessing he likes Swedish automobiles. I also have owned two Swedish cars myself, both of them Volvos, and I joined an owners forum to learn how to fix them, same I did here for C&V bikes. Just one thread from me attracted such flaming, I lost interest immediately in continuing on that forum.
We have it pretty good here on BF C&V. Let's aim to keep it that way.