I had not thought of this issue - my LBS is both a Trek and an Orbea dealer, so that should not be a problem. The LBS is pushing me to the Orbea as he thinks the ride would better suit my greater weight.

I seem to be leaning very much towards the Orbea. One of the reasons I bought my first road bike - a Solo Softride - was that it looked distinctive. And I like to look different. At 105 kg that is usually not too hard! Anyway... While the Treks are very good and well known, and pretty good for "cool" points, the Orbeas look a hell of a lot better (in my opinion). Very distinctive - and you can even customise them - put your name on them or anything. I presume that costs a fair bit, and I am not particularly looking to have my name on the bioke, but you can chose from a dozen or so very artistic paint schemes. Treks have two.

While one probably should not buy a bike on how it looks, most of us do. When it comes down to it, it becomes a gut feeling, and how cool it looks certainly has a part to play.

If this was not so - I would buy a Raceline. These are about half the price of a similar Trek, and have a very good ride. In fact, I love the ride the Raceline gives me. Suits me perfectly, although they do come in at around 10kg. But they have a very poor name - they are almost a K-Mart bike (at least here in Australia), so while the product itself is flawless, market perception is not. A funny thing. I keep kicking myself for being so shallow, but there you go. they certainly need to do an image upgrade...