I was talking to my wife about this thread last night (she has a bike but is not an avid cyclist). She said "If you had $2,000 laying around can you honestly say you wouldn't buy the nicest bike you could afford with that?" It gave me a bit of interspection but my response to her as it will be to you is- I know enough about bikes to make an informed choice about what I like. If I had that cash sitting around I'd buy a steel framed touring type bike such as the Fuji Touring, or a lightweight aluminum Cyclocross bike. Based on the questions you came here to ask it does not sound like you know enough about bikes to make an informed choice about exactly what you will or won't like yet. No one at this website is going to be able to tell you "this is the best bike for you" you just gotta ride a bunch of them and see what feels best to you. I'm not saying no one should ever be able to enjoy their wealth, but I'd hate to see you blow a serious chunk of cash and then decide that the bike you bought isn't the best fit for you. If you want bling, build low-rider bikes, if you ride road bikes you'll be judged by your peers on your speed and endurance, not your component set while you are standing next to the bike at the bottom of a tall hill.

The downfall of text based communication is the lack of inflection in what we write. I'm sure in real life you are not pretentious, but based on what you posted, you came across that way. I can however assure you I am as much of a judgmental ***hole in real life as i am on the forums.

You rejected the advice that a bike in the $800-1,200 could be every bit as nice as a bike costing twice that.

OP = Original Poster, the person who started the thread.