The smoothness of the ride on both bikes was remarkable, compared to my Al bike - it was definitely the most notable ride aspect. And the second most notable was what felt like the sluggishness. Some of that could have been the wheels because my regular wheels are very stiff.

I'm not sure who else is reading this thread, but I guess I'm asking SK abd Deb for starters: To what degree do you guys think that the tubing and geometry manipulation that could be done to increase the snappiness (is this vertical compliance?) would be or should be affected by rider weight? (And not just snappiness, but any other ride characteristic). Specifically, I am a pretty heavy rider now, and I have about another 30-40 pounds to lose. It seems like that level of fine-tuning would be more likely to be affected by my weight than other factors like fit or componentry. Is that true?

I do plan on riding as many other bikes as I can - carbon, other steel and Ti, and so on. I don;t knwo anything about Roark - I'll look them up.

Thanks for all your thoughts - this is a really fun process!