Again, thanks for the replies! Yeah, that's the thing--I'm pretty new after so much time off, and since I'm now addicted to road riding, my knowledge is mostly limited to what I have learned from mags and this site.

So the thing for me is I really want to know the real difference between the bikes I can easily test (Trek, Specialized, and the like) and those that are less common. How much difference is there between, say, a comparable middle of the road LeMond, Trek, Specialized, and Colnago? It's crazy that I seen so many uncommon bikes over the past couple of months here in Central Park, and I can't believe so many of these riders bought them without a test ride.