datlas 

So a patient of mine who is a runner comes in today for a visit.

He says he wants to ask my opinion about bikes. He wants to get one for fitness. He has a friend who told him he must spend $2500-3000 for a road bike.

I told him his friend is clueless and you can get a perfectly good entry level road bike for roughly $1K. Sure, it will have aluminum frame and CF fork, not all CF....and maybe tiagra/105 instead of ultegra, but what kind of a moran tells a newbie to buy a $3K bike??