My wife caught me putting this frameset http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...2_10000_202337 into a shopping cart Sunday. She blurted out, in a kind of dismayed tone "you're buying a $1200 bike?" I'm just musing with it, but I came back innocently with "Just the frame set. But it's only $399, less than your bike cost. I'll just need some bars, maybe a groupset and I have enough other parts ... "

She's seen me browsing Ultegra components before, and high end wheels and so on and offered up that it would be $2500 or more before I was done. I was just making scenarios and I'm really considering something like the nashbar touring frame and fork, but it got me thinking. That $2500 is way low on my virtual builds, but I'm really only going to spend about $300-$400. Maybe considering realistic mid-range prices would buy me some brownie points on the real plan ... What would you do?