Road Cycling - 6'4- 94 cm inseam needs help buying a road bike.

Hello. I am in the process of looking for a new bike and I am hoping to get some opinions.
What I know (or think I know): It is all about fit and feel. Test ride! Test ride! Test ride!
I am 6'4 with a 94 cm inseam. I am currently riding a 23 inch/58cm Peugeot Carbolite 103 road bike that is 17 years old. (yes I know just about anything will be an upgrade). Until recently I road my bike a few times a month for commuting purposes only. Now I am riding 40-60 miles a week. I just completed my first olympic distance triathlon and I am training for another one.

Please provide your opinions on the following:
1) Standard frames are better than compact frames for tall people. True/False?
2) It's not worth spending more than $1,200 on a bike unless you are going to spend more than $2,000. I have now idea what the logic is behind this but I have heard it a few different times. Obviously not from a store sales person. :-)
3) Based on limited research I am leaning towards a 63 cm Cannondal R600. I still need to test ride bikes though.
4) Any other opinions from other tall folks out there or from recent bike buyers. I have heard a few folks say that they wish they would have spent more money on their first bike? What is a good starting point? i.e. Shimano 105s. etc.

Thank you for your time.

The 63cm Cannondale is probably a bit small for you, though with some adjustments it may work out ok.

My personnal opinion is that the traditional frame is better for bigger guys, and smaller guys, than the stupid looking compact frames. There is no advantage to a compact other than lower standover.

My advice is to talk to a professional shop that has experience fitting big guys such as Rivendell or, even John Slawta of Landshark bikes. John is the builder and owner and is also 6'4" as I remember.

Be leary of the fitting methods of LBS's. They often put people on frames much too small to give them the racerboy look and then have to compensate for comfort by extending head tubes and raising the seatpost to adnormally high levels. The old French method of choosing a frame size by PBH - 25 or 26 is just as relevant today as it was yesterday for a tall person.

I'm also 6ft 4ins and have a 93cm inseam. Without having fitted you, I'd say you need to look at frames with 'about' a 600mm top tube. Mine is 605mm but I'm not very flexible, and could probably fit on a 615 if i wasn't so lazy and actually did something to improve my core stability. Man, how many times have I typed that this week *laugh*.

'Compact' or 'Traditional' geometry is irrelevant. The bike fits you or it doesn't - all a sloping top tube does is introduce more vertical compliance to the frame and drops the weight a smidge. If chosing 'Compact' means only having 5 sizes to chose from, I'd steer away from that. I'd also be trying to look at a 73º/72º combo of angles, although that might be difficult to find. 105 is a great starting point if you're serious about this riding thing.

Also, there's a couple of other 'tall guy' threads at the moment - go check them.