Originally Posted by Elbeinlaw

When I bought my first "10 speed" back in 1974 or -5, the bike shop was selling my hard on some French brand, which was way more expensive and nowhere near as simipatico as the Univega I favored. The salesman was arguing really hard that this French bike weighed 1 1/2 pounds less than the Univega. On a long bike trip, that 1 1/2 pounds was a huge drag. I was almost convinced. And then the light went off and I said: "Wait a minute. I weight 250 pounds (or whatever). That's way less than 1% of my weight!" And I bought the Univega. Never looked back. Its second owner was my older son, back in around 2000 or so.

I think we get caught up in specs when we should be taking a step back and--as you suggest--thinking about whether these things make a practical difference for our use.