Originally Posted by
Gino71
Thanks so much for the link and the reply! Looks like I'll have to possibly rethink some things and research evenmore.
Always a whole lot to think about when you're getting into it!
When I got back into riding- I had an "old" bike that I just hadn't ridden much at all for 20 years. I thought it was cool, and found that people also thought it was cool. The more I started reading and looking at pictures and really figuring out
WHY I thought my bike was cool- I started piecing together what kind of bikes I liked. (short story long: I had an old "All Terrain Bike" {which I considered a "mountain bike"} so I thought "I like old mountain bikes," but I didn't realize ATBs shared a lot of characteristics and components with touring bikes- and it just so happened I went through a bunch of mountain bikes and was not really happy until I figured out that "touring bikes" were what I liked)
My advice-
keep looking at pix- find out makes and model names, find out what those are and mean (why is a Stumpjumper considered "above" a Rockhopper), learn some about things like English/French/Swiss standards. ASK QUESTIONS! The coolest thing about this group is the willingness to help people.