Pete Clark and ahuman -

Thanks for each of your posts. Last night I went to a Sun & Ski Sports here in Houston and looked at their hybrids. Luckily the size I needed in the bikes he was recommending will not be available - I am generally a pushover at the point of sale - so I just asked a lot of questions and test drove a few bikes and really learned quite a bit. I will go to some smaller independent shops today and tomorrow to comparison shop and ask more questions about features, etc. The two bikes that he seemed to think were comparable in quality and good for a new cycler like myself were the Cypress DX and a model by Gary Fisher (spelling?), the name of which escapes me at the moment. The only difference he could point to between them was that the Gary Fisher has a trigger gear shift while the Giant has the thing where you turn the whole handlebar forward or backward. In my mind, that trigger did not justify the additional $60, but I will do a little more research over the next couple of days to determine which I really prefer. Both had front and rear suspension, which I know someone here has said is not worth the money, but it's only a $30 difference over the lower models in each case, and I would love my *** to be as comfortable as possible - it's a very important part of me. Anyway, thanks again for the help so far. I'll keep everyone posted on how this all turns out!