Originally Posted by hokiefyd

It's going to be hard to get around the stiff ride of the FX. It's relatively light weight (for its class) with an aluminum frame and has relatively narrow tires that must be inflated higher than wider tires. On the plus side, the FX 3 does have a carbon fork, which does improve the ride in theory, but there are other knocks against it in the ride quality department. You might be able to fit 38mm tires on an FX, but that's probably as large as you can go. Generally, the larger the tire you can fit on a bike, the more comfortable it will be, given that you run appropriate inflation pressure.

I like the idea of trying a steel bike. My favorite bike in my collection is a 1997 Trek 750, which is all double-butted chrome-moly steel. It's about 4 pounds lighter than my aluminum 2015 Trek Verve, and I'd say the comfort level is similar. The 750 has a bit of a more aggressive riding position, which makes it more efficient for pedaling.

I don't necessarily agree with your bike shop that a Verve (or something like it) makes longer rides more comfortable. I own a Verve, and there are definite trade-offs. The more upright you sit, the more comfortable (generally) your hands and wrists are. Less pressure is a good thing. However, you now have more pressure on your saddle, and it's not easy to make a comfortable saddle that carries the majority of your weight. Saddles like this that do tend to be more comfortable are wider and usually cost you efficiency with pedaling. But you can't put too narrow of a saddle on, because those are usually not comfortable when you're sitting upright.

On the other hand, leaning forward lessens pressure on your saddle, which can help that area, but you now have more pressure on your arms and wrists and hands. There are 1,001 different types of handlebar designs which are supposed to be The Most Comfortable. Some people like drop bars. Some people like northroad bars. Some people like trekking bars. Some people like flat bars. It's even cultural to some degree. Drop bars took hold in America during the road bike craze some decades ago and are still popular here for touring (long distance comfort). Europeans, from what I understand, typically use flat bars with bar ends, or trekking bars.

Me...I like conventional bars that have some backsweep. The Jones H bar looks interesting to me, though I've never tried it. The ones I use on my two main bikes now (750 and Verve) have about 15 degrees of backsweep to them, and they're relatively wide (600-620mm). For me, hand and wrist comfort come from wide bars. I have wide shoulders and something that's less than about 550mm wide really squeezes me in.