Gotcha.

I can definitely see the value in learning to wrench, especially when you are on the road. You'll know your machine better than most people do theirs. The downside is that the OEMs get a sweet deal on the components, which means it's really hard to get a similarly spec'd machine from the frame up for nearly the same money. Of course, you can start with a donor bike and shop the usual suspects for used parts. Did you catch the recent thread on a Nashbar frame build up? Came out pretty nice. Good luck.