I've kind of been bitten by the cycling bug after my friend lent me his road bike and we went out for a nice 20 mile ride. I'm looking for a decent entry level bike that won't exactly break the bank, but at the same time I can be fine with for a few years.

I come from an engineering, automotive and motorcycle racing background and understand my ways around materials and builds, but have yet to obviously experience them.

With the research I've been doing and what I've been told, it looks like it'll either be something like a Specialized, Trek, or Giant due to their engineering and history. I particularly like that Giant does seem like the only BIG company out there that engineers and builds their bikes under their own roof in Taiwan. A Trek Emonda or Madone would also be nice because of their made in USA claim, but it is far too much bike and too expensive for me at the moment (maybe one of these days). As much as I would like one, an Italian bike is being ruled out just due to lack of dealer support around me and cost.

One friend did mention that KTM builds bikes, which kind of piqued my interest a little bit. I'm not the most crazy about their motorcycles (I own 3 Ducatis), but based on some of the information I've read about and have been told from reps, they're made in Austria next door to the motorcycles with their own proprietary carbon. Only thing with them it seem is they're relatively new to the US market and no one I've talked to (except their reps) have any real riding experience with them. Does anyone here have any one and/or experience with them?