That LBS guy must have been good. Maybe he was helped by these forums though. i took my $30 goodwill bike in for a tune up before i had any idea how to do it myself, and before i knew any bike forums existed. and he said stuff like "Acera level components can't be adjusted very well, you'd be better off getting a new bike" and my response was something like "cool thanks i'll get a bike repair book somewhere else buh bye" then i tuned it up myself and rode that bike for about 275 miles and decided i was going to stick with it and got a new bike, at a different LBS. i still think Acera is good stuff for a starter bike.