What was helpful in the forum was listing the hierarchy of Shimano components. It gave me a sense of the differences between some of the models and manufacturers. What was amazing to me was how easy it was to to upgrade bike models. When I road the Trek 7300 and DS 8.2, they were improvements on my Townie in different ways. Then the FX 7.2 was the champ--lighter, more agile than the DS 8.2 for how I like to ride. But riding the 7.5 back-to-back with the 7.2, I noticed the weight and vibration (over the gravel and dirt) in the 7.2 that was a little bit muted in the 7.5. But the weight diff. was really awesome. And my LBS was very nice, answered a lot of technical questions.

I'll be having to give up one of our two cars (I work at home while my wife works several miles away) to a college-bound kid next year so I'm wondering how much commuting around town I can do in its place. Mostly getting out to lunch just to get out of the house. Maybe a small grocery shopping and a trip to the Post Office. I noticed a forum on going carless. I'd rather skip the car payment for a while.