There is a small hill behind the shop, I made sure to play on it.

Not sure about switching out wheels, tires, etc. Seems like a lot of work for the LBS and me. I suspect whatever I decide to buy will probably work out fine. I'm way too lazy to try to nuance every little bit of the various bikes. I doubt I'm that smart! I somehow made the OCR work fine for the past ten years and it isn't exactly a racing machine!