Yes, 50/34 crankset. That is plenty for me. Downhill is for coasting/recovery IMO - I'm not racing...

I do think I'd rather have the 105/11 spd and 11-32. I've charted the ratios and it's much smoother than the Tiagra's 10 spd group, especially at the top end.

They put the Domane 4 on the scale while I was there and it was 20.1# (in 58cm size).

I haven't ridden an alu frame so I don't know what the drawbacks are, other than what people say. I wasn't planning on a carbon frame, so if I could get one at a reasonable price, that would be a plus. My goals are to ride 30-100 miles regularly, and my current long-term desire is to do the "200 on 100", a 212 mile border-to-border (Canada to Mass) ride on VT-100.

All that said, when I told my wife about my "detour" today and asked her how she felt about me spending $1-2k on a bike she said that when I started talking about upgrading she was expecting $2k...

So now I just have to justify it to myself, and pick the bike that works best for me.