A very interesting and good learning thread.
I am a newbie who is coming in from the angle of knowing virtually nothing about any bikes. As I'm looking to get one soon, and overweight to boot, my goals were to lose weight and enjoy cycling around the country as well as just around town. The weather is starting to change now in the UK so hopefully we will have a good summer.
I thought I wanted a Hybrid/Street/Commuting bike or a Mountain bike with slicks on. Actually, a Mountain bike would still be ok for what I need but having read various articles on the web, and this thread, I'm almost certain now that a Tourer is everything I want and more.
One think I would like to ask everyone, when you buy a new bike and decide to upgrade gears etc straight away, does the shop simply change them and charge you the difference, or charge for new and give your old gears to you, I am unsure what the norm is?
Good reading thread.