I'm in a bit of quandary an so thought I'd see what the bet and brightest of BF might have to say.

The short of it is that I need to decide between replacing the group set on my bike or replace the bike all together.

Now for the back story: I have a mid-90's LeMond Buenos Aires with the original 9-speed 105 group set on it. Aside from wheels (Aksium Race), saddle, cables/housings, and bar tape, it is original. The shifter for the rear has given up the ghost and per a couple local LBS's if I get a new shifter it will be 10-speed (9-speed is no longer made and I don't want Tiagra) and so I'll need a new rear derailleur, new rear cassette, and new chain. But because the old crankset won't work with a 10-speed chain, I'll need to replace the crankset as well. Also, the headset needs to be reworked. At this point I might as well change out the entire group set for $950 (including LBS build).

Well, one of my LBS's offered $400 for the bike. That basically gives me a $1350 allowance. A couple hundred more and I can get a very well equipped carbon Scattante or Motobecane . But, after perusing BF for a while doing research on factory direct bikes, the LeMond enthusiasts over in Vintage have me second guessing the replacement option. Also, one of the Vintage threads mentioned finding NOS components.

So, my options are:

1) Keep the LeMond and have a LBS replace the groupset for me (I have neither the time nor experience to do so myself).

2) Track down some NOS 9-speed shifters (potentially a low probability of success endeavor).

3) Replace my bike with a Scattante/Motobecane/Paramount/Fuji.

What say yea oh gods of the biking interweb?