Originally Posted by
gregjones
105 level not that much more expensive and well worth it.
With your experience I would imagine that you can maintain and perform at least minor repairs on a bike. You can get a lot more bike from Nashbar or Bikes Direct than a "company name painted on probably a Giant frame anyway" store. You can probably get a few levels higher in components for the same money. There's threads to search for on the topic. As many opinions favor as oppose. One of the latest positive reviewed bikes is the Nashbar 105 cross bike. Well in your budget and especially well equipped for the money.
I are a mechanic, so yes...
Based on this thread, I indeed went and looked at the BikesDirect offerings and found
this bike with Ultegra 10sp at $999. All kinds of offerings there with 105 for less money in various road and cx models. Same with Nashbar.
Unsure of mechanical experience of OP, so did not suggest these. But now that you've brought it up...
Personally, I'd be looking at a mail-order bike, knowing I could get it together and adjusted properly. For anyone not so mechanically inclined, I'd suggest calling around to local shops and seeing if they'd assemble and adjust a new, sourced-online bike, what it would cost to get that done, and then subtract it from overall budget to come up with an adjusted ceiling budget. Some shops resent mail-order bikes; I work in a shop and it leaves me scratching my head -- labor is labor; shops don't actually make money on bike sales; why not court online sales labor...
The other factor with mail order bikes is fit. Again, I know my fit, can read and understand geometry/sizing charts, so no qualms about buying online without test riding. For those without experience or knowledge, it might be best to buy a bikeshop bike to test ride different sizes, get advice about fit, have a bike set up correctly in the first place, and hopefully get some gratis follow-up service.