you guys have to read this blog post about buying a bike

[OakLeaf]

Meh. All it says is that people don't do their homework before they go bike shopping. Part of it is the cultural bias toward cars - every one of us knows from childhood that you don't go to a Ferrari dealership looking for a utility truck - but part of it is just consumer laziness IMO. You can't expect a bike shop to be Super Walmart and carry everything from jicama to jewelry, and you can't expect the employees of either one to know about everything in the world. If people put a tenth of the effort into buying a bike before they ever set foot in a shop, that they do buying a car, no one would even understand what this piece is talking about. So people go into racing-oriented bike shops and are offended when the employees don't understand people who don't race. Whose fault is that really? Have you ever heard of a bike racer going into the shop that sells the beach cruisers and utility trikes, and being offended when the employees want to sell them a grocery getter?