I have drop bar bikes and flat bar bikes. On the drop bar bikes I can move my hands around to relieve the pressures that build up in them when they stay in one position too long. On my flat bar bikes there's really just one place my hands can go and sooner or later they start to hurt from unmoveable pressure. In my mind, and why I recommended a drop bar bike, is that the real question is "Do you want your hands to hurt?". Between the two bikes he's thinking about, I don't know anything about either one and don't have an opinion. But I think if he wants to "start riding" there's some value in his hearing from those who already are riding and whose experience allows them to ask "Do you want a bike that will make you hurt more or hurt less."