I know I shouldn't do this, but it seems like people get responses here better than they do on the intro page, so I'm going to dump my intro post on here and make some minor changes to try to garner some feedback.....

I just moved from 35 miles away from work (all highway) to 11 miles away from work (all side roads)

I'm going to try to start commuting via bicycle. I just received a bonus from work which will fund said venture. I will be perusing these forums a bit for bike suggestions (and, I might add, this thread has given me some EXCELLENT accessory suggestions), but I'll state here -

I looked at the Schwinn Super Sport DBX and I think it looks fantastic, but I just can't justify the price tag. I am looking for a road bike with dropped handlebars and disc brakes.... as time goes on I'm less hardcore on the disc brakes but my wife just bought a bike with them (a hybrid) and I loved the stopping power they provided. So if you know of any bikes that are like the DBX but cost less, than please suggest!

My other thought is to go with a much cheaper bike (Iron Horse, Fuji) to make sure I'll actually use it, and if I really get into it, then I can buy a second, more expensive bike for doing things that don't involve commuting and leaving my bike outside for 8+ hours a day (The workplace won't let me take it inside)

I'm not too terribly worried about theft as I am a white collar worker and the bike rack is right next to the smoking area so there are people around all day (I don't know why they'd put biking next to smoking, but it's not my call......) and, the smoking area is nowhere near a busy street. That said, I still probably will double lock it.

Anyway, my initial goal here is to get suggestions for a bike. I'm trying to convince myself that I don't need to go mainstream (Trek, Cannondale, Schwinn, Masi, etc) but I certainly would be more comfortable on something I recognize.