Velouria put up a really nice post about this a while back on her blog:
http://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2011/...out-mixte.html
Along the left side there's an index of key words - she has a whole load of different posts on it, all very enjoyable reads with plenty of photos. You could probably find all the answers to your questions there, develop new questions and have those answered too. Not that I'm against discussion or anything!
M.