I don’t see the complication as significantly different from the myriad of other “choices” in a bike’s design: wheelbase, headangle, front and back centre, BB style, suspension design, shocks, the list is long.
I could argue until the cows come home about which choices are more relevant than others and which – for a big part of the bike-buying market – simply don’t enter the decision making process. I’m not going to argue that because it wasn’t really my point anyway. All the choices you list are relevant to some degree or other and now we have ANOTHER choice that we are led to believe is VERY relevant. I realise many don’t agree, but I think too much choice can be detrimental.
If you like the look and the ride (for your preferred riding style) just buy it.
My mission is to keep making the point that you simply can’t test ride all the various styles of bike out there and certainly not on all the types of ride you might do, so at some stage the shortlist needs to be drawn up based on other factors. “Look” is a great one 🙂 but so many of us rely on the media to persuade us which way to focus. For us types of buyer, the 650b bandwagon is viewed with some scepticism.
