Thanks for the recent posts everyone. It's much appreciated.

I'm going to look at bikes / shops between today and saturday.

Today I'm gonna look at a used Smoke for 350 (I know this is retail) it comes with a Kryptonite lock, a rear light and a rear rack (sounds about $100+ in extras) but I figure I should give the twist shifters a chance for now. It's 18in so maybe a bit small for me but we'll see.

Then I'm going to look at a Specialized Allez also, 2002 Also for $350. This looks like it might be a better deal to me just because, but unfortunately the guy cant show it until saturday. It's 54 cm so it also might be a little on the small size.

I was going to look at a GT Transeo 2.0 Disc for $450, but it is a 50 minute public transit trip away and I don't have time to check it out today.

Aside from that I'm going to hit up 3 bike shops

Do any of those bikes stand out as either fair or good deals?