Originally Posted by
snappergrass
If you want a bike now there's an endless maze of choices, which for a lot of us is fantastic, but for somebody who just wants to ride is hopeless.
Plus also the fact that LBSs usually seem to want to upsell desperately by telling people they have to have suspension, full suspension, this, that and the other, when it's obvious that 90% of riders would be more than fine with a simple rigid bike with a hub gear. OK, 20% of the people might fall for that, but 80% will just be scared off by the high price. (I'm making those numbers up, and that might be the important bit).