Originally Posted by Dave Mayer

Exactly. Words of wisdom here. After putting in a few thousand miles, the OP might decide to focus on long touring-type rides. Perhaps with bags/panniers. Or riding on gravel back roads such as dominates around my 'hood. This would require fat tires and a longer wheelbase.

Or perhaps the OP turns out to be an immensely talented 'crit rider, and has to upgrade to a higher-end bike within a year. Or as I see with a lot of new road riders, road riding does not turn out to be their 'thing'. And then a $2k bike collects dust or is sold off on Craigslist at a significant discount. Happens a lot.

We've seen this before boys and girls... I am old enough to remember the early 70's Bike Boom, in which everyone below the age of 40 rushed out and bought a '10-speed' presumably for the heath and environmental benefits. But it turned out that the low bar position and skinny high-pressure tires were inappropriate for most of the riding done by most people, and 40+ years later, these millions of under-used 10-speeds are still issuing out of garages around the continent. In fact the 'fixie' fad that recently flamed-out fed on these old steel-framed bikes for their raw material.

But in the end, like all of the previous fads in the bike industry, the 'road bike' thing will also flame out, leaving thousands of orphaned carbon frame road bikes out there. Good times.

I never stopped riding the 10-speed I bought in 1973, even during the lean years in the 90's when you could not give away a road bike. I look forward to the time about 3 years from now when the $2k carbon bikes will be abandoned in droves and I can finally upgrade!

Back to the decision faced by the OP.... he or she should make sure that road riding isn't just going to be a 30 day adventure - before spending a lot of money.