At this point, more upright=better. I talked to the BF last night, and he did buy his current bike there (a Cannondale Somethingunbelievablyexpensive, when they still carried Cannondale), and he was quite happy with everything. I also managed to get into a conversation about bikes with my former chem prof (he had his bike in his office). He said he was quite happy with the customer service he got at the Performance store in town and with the bike he got. (Of course, he acknowledged that it might have been because the salesman was a student of his!) It sounds like customer service varies widely between stores.