prooftheory

Carleton,
Part of the issue is that most of us are looking at these things on-line and there isn't any way to get a feel for what a part is like.

It is good to get a kind of heads up about different parts. Sometimes there aren't already threads out there about what sort of things to look for in a part and whether a given part is any good.

There are tons of parts that look good on-line but don't have any reviews anywhere. It is good to see if there is any consensus about them. If it weren't for people asking "Hey what about Big Shot Bikes?" in these forums then all people would have to go on when buying them is the Big Shot web site.

Lots of people don't live anywhere near a "store that serves the track/fixed crowd" and those that do often only have Velocity rims and looking at a rim doesn't tell you as much as somebody having ridden on them for 1000 miles.

So what is this forum for if not for sharing experiences and expertise?

Another reason these questions get asked is that there are literally too many options to make following your suggested course of action. Take this guy's question. He was probably looking at a whole bunch of different rims but the forum has successfully made his selection easier by letting him focus on kinlins and mavic open pros. Now he or she can do what you think he should with some options in mind rather than being overwhelmed.