Originally Posted by
John_V
What timing! I ordered a mount for my wife's Cateye bike light from my LBS and it came in yesterday. I went there to pick it up and while I was there, a man in his mid 40's was looking at the road bikes. The owner, Charlie, is a year younger than me (I'm 64.98) and his mechanic, Lucas, is in his mid 20's. We are on first name basis at this store. This LBS carries a small inventory of road bikes because of a larger bike shop a few miles away that specializes in road bikes and has a very large inventory of them. The customer, who wanted to do distance rides, asked Charlie if they sold very many road bikes to guys in his age group because he had heard that road bikes are better for doing long distance rides. Lucas, who was ringing up my order, turned to the customer and said, "Sir! If you want to know about guys your age riding road bikes for long distances, you may want to talk to this gentleman. He's a bit older than you and rides farther than I can." I left after speaking the the customer for 5 minutes or so, but I think that Charlie sold another road bike.
+1!!
To the OP....... Keep all your options open......buying used, LBS and even on-line.
If you're concerned that a drop bar bike may prove to uncomfortable, spending less upfront is a good place to start. Also, start test riding as many different road bikes as you can. The less expensive frames are usually aluminum and steel, ride these bikes as well as carbon just to compare.
My story......after 30+ years (I'm 56), I purchased a steel drop bar road bike last year. I've ridden over 3500 miles on the bike so far and couldn't be happier. I really like having the different hand positions drop bars allow; the hoods, bar tops and in the drops. The various positions helps relieve fatigue on long rides and aids in riding into the wind.
I also commute to work 29 miles round trip. The commuting bike is an old steel MTB with a flat bar. Even with bar ends, my hand positions are more limited, where I'm forced to ride more upright. I really miss the road bike on the commutes and know I could ride up to 4 mph faster. My next bike will be a drop bar road bike for commuting.
For me;
asphalt = drop bars
dirt = flat bars (although, I'm drooling over a Salsa Veya 29'r drop bar for gravel/dirt roads, so this is not even a given)