Originally Posted by vkalia

It is ironic that a lot of the people who say "it is not the bike" have top of the line stuff (including THAT guy who made this phrase really popular).

OP - get yourself a nice bike from a store which will spend the time to fit you for it. Your price range puts you squarely in the sweet spot for price/performance for high-end bikes. The difference in stiffness and performance will be significant.

You have choices of materials - for your price range, carbon is the only one that makes a lot of sense. Custom steel is very expensive and only makes sense if your body proportions are unusual (if most people can race centuries on stock bikes, I humbly argue that custom is usually an indulgence and not a need).

V.