Originally Posted by Steve Sawyer

Thanks again for some great advice, folks!

I understand about using the first road bike to determine what I really want. In woodworking the same advice is given to people about building workbenches - you really have to use one for awhile until you learn what's important to you and what features you want. A year ago, I would have just given it my best shot and gone out and bought a good entry-level road bike from the LBS. Now, saving hard for impending retirement AND with a wife that was downsized into a job paying less than half what she used to make, every purchase is a struggle. I'm hoping to get enough from the sale of my recumbent and my current hybrid to pay for the new roadie. I'm not sure where the $$ will come from for the next upgrade! I'm going to try to make as intelligent and considered a choice as I can on this bike - who knows, I might get lucky and be satisfied with it for a long time. Realistically, I'm hoping that eventually I'll become knowledgeable enough to be able to bypass the LBS and take advantage of the deals on BD for N+2. Another possibility is that if the frame is dead-on right for me, I can upgrade components to dial it in.



That's an interesting observation, and something that I suspected, hence my desire to understand how the groupsets (nice to know that word now!) are ranked.