Thank you both for the feedback.
Grumpy, your 820 looks to be much newer, higher level, and in better condition. Mine is mid-90s Mountain Track and yours appears to be mid-00s Single Track.
I did a lot more reading. It is incredibly difficult to locate a comparison between 90s and modern MTBs for riding on paved roads
.
Obviously, modern will outdo 90s in anything trail-related. This is not so clear for riding on paved roads.
I like how my 90s bike rides on pavement and I am concerned that the 2.6" tires will provide a lot more rolling resistance than the 1.95" tires. I learned that, if necessary, this could be somewhat alleviated by replacing the knobbies with lower profile threads.
The gears were also a bit of concern - going from 21 down to 8. But honestly, I only ever use about 4 out of the 21 gears and do not do road racing so maybe that's not a valid concern.
Another was the geometry related to the seating position. Currently, my seating position is not very comfortable for me so still not sure about this - I guess there is higher likelihood that it will be more comfortable rather than not.
Anyhow, I bought the Axum last night with a delivery date of 10/5 - I guess time will tell...