Hobie1616, I see your point.
I used to road race, averaging 300 mi/wk, with a team... I still have my bike, a TREK aluminum-frame with a Dura-Ace brake-lever shifting gruppo (it was new at the time, and the Al frame was stiffer than carbon, at that time), a Selle Italia Ti seat, yada yada...
I now am happily chubby and fart around on my TREK 7500, hybrid, with its radial-spoke BONTRAGER rims. Wow, base model bikes are now like racing bikes used to be.
Those aluminum frames are back killers. A friend set up a Al frame with extremely stiff Specialized tri spoke wheels. The ride was so hard he wrecked his back. I think he went by the Hernando philosophy of, "It is better to look good then to feel good."
He ended up modifying a Trek Y33 MTB with full suspension to ride on the road.
