Thank you for posting. Everything that I read here helps.

By the way, the prospective use is primarily recreational for about 25 to 100 miles per week half the year. I live among and will also visit some pretty hilly terrain. I anticipate riding primarily on paved roads and trails, with an occasional gravel road thrown in, maybe hauling a maximum of 20 lbs of gear or groceries.

I am spending quite a bit of time reading here and elsewhere, getting up to speed on several decades of evolution since I was riding and building bikes (more) seriously in the 70's. ...like learning about cassette clusters and freehubs; who would have thought?

While nothing is forever, I would like to get a bike that will facilitate replacing worn or damaged parts and/or a bit of part swapping; dare I even say upgrading over time? Evaluating the ability to change out hubs, wheels, brakes, clusters, derailleurs, chain rings and cranksets seems like it will be "relatively" straight forward if I understand frame and bracket spacing and put some time into evaluating each item.

On the other hand, if I were to damage the handlebar stem and/or quick release and the manufacturer came up dry for a replacement part, or I just wanted to change the factory handlebar stem out for a different one, is there any standard whereby the fork tube might readily accommodate a different unit?
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