I love the color, too. My mountain bike is a Trek 4500 and it's blue, too. Lighter, so they compliment each other.
Oh, when I finally did talk to hubby about it, he immediately started counting the bikes in the garage...two project bikes, two mountain bikes, the two hybrids which got us going. He has two and he doesn't even ride that much. lol. But he loves me and lets me do anything I want.
I will definitely check out that thread about brakes. I think I've peeked in there and I was thinking how noisy they are just this morning.
Karen