Originally Posted by cyccommute

It's best if you look on a bicycle as a frame on which you hang parts. What parts the bike has don't matter. What frame you use doesn't (hardly) matter. Whether the frame is brand new or decades old doesn't matter. Start with a good frame and add good parts to it.

People are very different in their likes, dislikes and ambivalentancies. What I like...American made aluminum and titanium mountain bikes and road bikes...won't necessarily appeal to you. What I don't like or at least am ambivalent towards...anything steel or steel racing bikes...may float your boat. My bikes drip with boutique American parts which some people pooh pooh. My bike frames are (usually) boutique frames to begin with.

Find something that makes your heart go pitty pat and go forward.