I know this was not the OP's question, but has been hinted at numerous times. I use to be a serious competitive age-group runner until I fell and injured my knee and cannot do enough running miles to stay competitive. As a result I am considering doing tri's (really Du's, don't enjoy swimming) but the bike portion kinda ruins it for me. In running, if someone in your age group beats you by a few seconds, you have no choice but to train harder, you can't buy your way to a better time, which makes it a truly competitive race of you against your fellow competitors, not who has the deeper pockets. I know many of you will say it does not make that much difference, but the question will always be there, did he beat me because he had the guts to train harder or did he buy his time. And of course, as the original poster asked, right off the bat you have the quandry of what kind of bike to get and at what price, when does the price eacalation end. Any suggestions?