You guys just suck at converting bikes/finding good deals. If you buy a complete road bike, strip it and hang brand new parts on it then of course you're going to take a hit in the wallet but that would be a stupid thing to do anyway. My conversion has better parts and is more versatile than other people's stock BD track bikes that I've ridden, and cost about $150 less than a kilo. Geometry is a personal preference thing and someone just getting into bikes might be better off riding road geometry than some twitchy track frame anyway. If you are impatient and want/need a bike NOW or don't know anything about bikes and are too lazy to take the time to educate yourself then a BD bike is probably a good idea, but personally I'm glad I took the time to find good deals on CL/ebay/bike-coop parts bins and build my own bike.