Originally Posted by RH Clark

It's a lot of bike for the money but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best deal for you. It sounds to me like you could be letting your excitement of getting a high end bike at your budget get in the way of reasoning through the situation. The possible size issue would bother me most. Ideally you should get a bike fit and ride something that you know fits. You can always suffer through a shorter ride on a poorly fitted bike where a much longer ride would be tortuous. The style bike also may be an issue. I have some bikes that are fun and zippy on a short ride that I wouldn't ever choose for a 50 mile ride. You can buy a lot of bike on the used market for $1200. The main thing is to buy something that will both fit you and fit exactly what you intend to do with the bike.