Originally Posted by RollCNY

OP, just an opinion, but this is a bad idea. There is no magic question, and if you don't know enough to ask mechanical questions on your own, it will fall apart in a hurry. Say you ask what it costs to replace the freewheel, they look at the bike, and tell you it doesn't have a freewheel, it has a free hub, and a cassette. What are you looking to do? If you can't flow that into a conversation, you just erode your own credibility. Refurb bearings? What bearings? Sealed cartridge bearings get replaced, so there is no refurb. There is no safe magic question.

My advice: tell the sales person that you ride now, have a bike you commute on, and are looking for a nice road bike for under $1k. If they dismiss you, then you have your answer. If they show you bikes that are more than $1k, then they don't listen. But if they have a conversation, specific to you, then there is a good chance that they are a decent shop.

And I didn't mean any digs to @wphamilton, I just see limited success in the posing technical questions bit. Too easy to get you a wrong impression.