Originally Posted by
Phil_gretz
The point of my question wasn't the money, actually. It was his personal responsibility to find his own answer. If he tells the shop that he wants to keep up with road riders at 23+ mph, then that changes the answer significantly. The shop employee can also help him to set reasonable expectations for himself based on his honesty/realism about his current shape, physical capacities, willingness to commit to work hard, and timeline for success.
If you were to talk him through these things, it might be offensive to him. If a shop does it, it's a professional service to him. That was what I was getting at...
This...And when things go wrong, you don't want him to have reasons to blame you.
Point him in the right direction, but he should make all the decisions.