I test road the Trek 1000, a specialized allez, the Felt 90 and the C'dale. I decided on the C'dale because of the things that I read on these bikes (with the exception of the Felt) was that there were SOME issues with the rims for bigger riders like me. The C'dale, although I couldn't find anything on the rims specifically, has Mavic rims. So I thought the C'dale may be able to handle my size better. I also liked the way the c'dale looked and road better than the others. Admittedly, as some have pointed out on other threads, this being my first roadie, I may not know exactly what I'm looking for even with a test ride. So I guess, it's a crap shoot. I just liked the component group, rims and the reputation of the C'dale's customer service. I bought it for $1050 at a LBS. It's alot of money for me so I hope I made the right choice since I plan on putting alot of miles on it. For some odd reason, I can't find much on the Synapse alloy 4 on the net so I was hoping for some opinions on it. Thanks for the responses, Jason