Didn't know Performance was carrying the Schwinn version. As to the price, the Schwinn has a list of $499, the Trek Lime Lite has a list of $499, and they are extremely similar. Performance is discounting the Schwinn by $50 right now, two of my local Trek dealers are discounting the Lime Lite by $40 right now. So that's a $10 difference.

I'm less convinced that a lot of people "outgrow" these bikes. Some do. Many that participate on BikeForums do. But this group is far from a representative sample of the typical comfort bike user. When I ride the rail trails and MUPs around Wisconsin, I see a lot of riders on low-end comfort bikes. A number of my neighbors ride our local trail and about half of them are riding single speed Wal-Mart type bikes (the most popular bike store in the USA).

Sure if someone gets a Lime or a Nancy or Navigator or Sedona or (fill in comfort bike name here), and they catch the cycling bug, they are likely to move on quickly. Like Terrierman did. But most people don't.