Why is it, OP, that people who have never ridden fg bike can influence your friend, yet you, who have ridden fg, have less influence? Why would your friend listen to the voices of inexperience? Or have you never ridden a geared bike?
That said, having ridden both road bikes and now a fg bike (which I love), I would definitely recommend to any of my friends who didn't already have a bike to go with a road bike, if and only if they could only have one bike. I'd make that recommendation even if any of my friends live on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Like olives, fg should be an acquired taste.
Why not tell us what the roadies had to say that was so compelling to your friend to dissuade him from going fg?
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