Thanks for the answers. Concerning what I'm riding right now, it's not much to speak of. It's a freebie 30 pound steel bike with what I think are 650 sized wheels ... not something that I'm inclined to toss much money at. I've been toying with the idea though of getting another rear wheel so I can go out riding on good days yet not have to swap off the trainer tire. My worry is that switching the tires too much would damage them and be more costly than just getting another wheel/cassette combo.

The most likely outcome is me just sucking it up and riding on my trainer till I finally decide which of the many great choices for a road bike I'll go with. Just about every brand has something that seems intriguing to me. My favorite LBS only has trek and norco, neither of which are my top choices though I do like the madone 5.2 ... it just may be a bit more money than I want to spend.

As for training right now I'm pretty much just using the same two gears - the two tallest on this bike. I can pretty easily spin out of the tallest gear going downhill so I'm definitely looking forward to getting a bike with taller gears. On average though I'm not in good enough shape yet to use the tallest gear on the bike continuously for more than a few minutes ... the second tallest seems to be the sweet spot (~33km/h @ 85 rpm).