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Old 02-15-14, 01:31 PM
  #24  
tsl
Plays in traffic
 
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Rochester, NY
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Bikes: 1996 Litespeed Classic, 2006 Trek Portland, 2013 Ribble Winter/Audax, 2016 Giant Talon 4

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You're using the wrong organ make your decision.

Just as choosing a wife by listening to your gonads is the best way to make a wrong decision, turning bike buying into an intellectual exercise is the best way to make the wrong decision there.

Riding a bike is not an intellectual exercise, but a physical one. Deciding between bikes should also be.

Look, the four bikes you listed are so similar they might be identical.
  • They're all similarly equipped. The differing details between them are meaningless.
  • Their geometry is similar.
  • Their pricing is similar.
  • Their intended market segment is identical, and your intended use if firmly in the center of that segment.
  • Any one will give you the same bragging rights.
  • Not a one will make you unhappy.

But, one of them will speak to you on a different level and intensity than the others. When one speaks to you as a lover, that's the one to buy.

The way you listen is to ride the bike. Again, riding a bike is a physcal exercise, so the purcahse of one should also be a physical exercise, not an intellectual one.

Take your brain out, give it wash, and hang it up home to dry, then take your body on a test ride. Ride each one. Go back and ride them again if need be. But I guarantee, one will speak to you.

And it won't do so from a specification sheet or an internet forum.
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