I have a 7.6 FX and love it. It's just sooooo smooth on the road.

Sorry about your handlebar problem. I'll never go back to the dropped handlebars. I no longer bend very well into that position and forget trying to take a photograph on the fly in that position. I'm straight bar all the way.

As for the differences between the 7.3 and the 7.5, I couldn't get a good answer on that either even from an experienced lbs sales person. What he could tell me was that for each higher number some of the parts are better quality. A nebulous answer for a newbie. The only reason I bought the 7.6 was because it was on sale since it was the last year's model and was actually cheaper than buying the current year 7.5.

As for the differences in the quality of parts, you'll have to ask the components experts here.

I really can't think of anything I've found that I don't like about the 7.6. Well except for the fact that it came with a double rather than a triple and I REALLY needed the lower gears and had it switched to a triple. Having a triple on it now is a bit dicey. The lbs states that squeezing a triple where a double was is problematic and they can't get all three rings all perfectly adjusted at once. That was fine with me. I just asked them to favor adjusting the lower gears because I'd never be up on the third ring anyway.