Early specialized epic carbon bikes offer a nice ride on the open road, and aren't terribly expensive. Also as mentioned the allez with the fastback stays are sometimes sleepers if the seller doesn't know much about them. Some of the lower end early treks, like the 400's offer reynolds or ishiwata tubesets and can be had for about 200 clams. Cannondale ST series tourers are an unusual mix of quick yet extremely practical. Also agree that some of the Nashbar branded bikes offer pretty decent values for the performance level, as do other store import rebadges. Sometimes Gitanes slip under the radar, and on the high end Ciocc designers sometimes come along at reasonable prices.