Originally Posted by
Kopsis
And depending on where and with whom the OP rides, this is something to be considered carefully before dropping $3k. If you ride with groups, you will not be taken seriously on a BD bike -- even if you have enough engine to crush other riders. If you mostly ride solo or truly don't care what others think, then there's nothing fundamentally wrong with Motobecane bikes.
As far as the bike goes, BD bikes with high end groupsets seem a bit incongruous. Kind of like kids putting a $2000 set of wheels on a $1500 Honda Civic. Whatever marginal performance advantage you get from the DA9000 is going to be diminished by putting it on what is otherwise a low to mid range bike. The CF Elite with Ultegra is the same frameset for half the price. I'd go that route and put the savings into a wheelset upgrade where you'll get far more bang for the buck than you'll get from DA9000.
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I hope this does not speak for the cycling community at large it would be a sad thing. As a long distance runner for 35 years we never look at the shoes a person wears when they show up to run. Abebe Bikila showed up in 1960 at the Olympic Marathon in Rome without shoes and happened to win the Gold Medal, then 4 years later in Japan won it again this time he wore shoes. I do not ride much with groups just because of time and logistics but those who ride with me I hope appreciate my mechanical skills and could bail them out if they had trouble on the ride, they even ask question about wheels and the various components. I am no expert but the last fellow I rode with still has downtube shifters ( indexed though) and a 7 speed freewheel. Earlier this summer he managed two 5 hour centuries back-to-back on consecutive days and he is 51 years old. I like to ride with anyone who wants company and the only problem I see is you might be fast and I cannot keep up, otherwise I can slowdown that is easy.