I'm new here, and thought I would introduce myself! I'm a 34 year old student, working on a mechanical engineering degree. I'm new to bikes, and got one at first for commuting to school, but I got addicted pretty fast. I had someone build a budget townie, built on a mongoose hill topper mtb frame, and it was the first time I rode a bike that fit me! (I'm 6'3) I've been really happy with it, but now I'm finding myself wanting something sportier, so I'm in the process of figuring out my direction, and what I need.

Basically, if I should take any time making my townie any sportier, or leave it as is, and focus my time/budget on a road bike project. And then of course, what I even want/need in a road bike. I've not had great luck finding 60+ cm frames or bikes within my budget, and on top of that, I weigh around 210, and don't plan or want to lose weight, since I have other sports I keep my weight for. So trying to figure out a good balance of beefy but not as heavy as my hill topper.

This time, I would like to do the work myself, I'm pretty handy, and like mechanical stuff (I've done a lot of car work for fun), but I'm new to bike work. I've been doing a ton of reading, here and on Sheldon's site, but I'm definitely new to all of this still!

I'll have a lot of questions, but in the meantime, I'm trying to get my post count to 10!

Welcome aboard!

Welcome to the forum. We look forward to your contribution. Enjoy your rides. Be safe.

Cool 🤙
and same
have fun!

Welcome, Californian here too. I say you should leave your townie as is and just make small meaningful improvements over time. Do your research and get a sweet vintage road bike to fix up and tune, you will have a lot of fun. Plenty of people, including myself have gotten ones in decent condition for free or next to nothing. You should have no problem picking one up for your size, I think the larger frames take longer to sell, just check CL it's saturated with them.

Welcome! Enjoy