I have a 1985 Cannondale ST400. It's 24.5 lbs (as I step on the scales with it in my hands). I just started daily workouts with it a little over 3 weeks ago. I've had my eye on a Trek 2.1 or a Specialized Elite. Both look nice. However, both are what? $1,600+. It's not so much a money issue because I expect they'd last a long time. I'm wondering what the real value is compared to what I have to upgrade with. I've read a few of the stickies and I understand the 'relaxed' ride notion. What things seem to boil down to for me are differences in gearing and weight of the bike, because outside those two things and the aggressiveness of the frame, what else really matters in the differences? My chain rings are 50/45. Most of the 'race' bikes seem to be not much more than 52 for the big ring. Most of the sub-$2,000 bikes don't seem to be any lighter in general than 20 lbs.

I'm 5'8" and weigh 185 (yeah, a bit overweight). Anyway, paying about $2,000 (plus or minus), for a new bike that's only 4 lbs lighter and about the same gearing on the main chainring... ? The first thing that comes to mind is that if I drop 4 lbs in weight through exercise and dieting, is not the relative weight the same? My current goal is to drop a lot more than that (working on being sub-160 lbs in about 3 months). So, unless I'm already at an ideal weight (like perhaps 150-155), weight-saved between my present bike and a new say, Trek 2.1, shouldn't be a factor, correct?

I guess I need some advice here. I don't mind spending some money on a new bike. I'm sure there's some here that'll say "lose weight first, fatty, then buy a new bike" and that's not the kind of advice I'm looking for. Sometimes a monetary commitment can be motivational all by itself because it can be coupled to emotional commitment. However, I don't need to put money down on something to be emotionally committed. My primary purpose now is to lose weight and get in better shape, sure, but in the back of my mind I have this nagging desire to do this for a year so that a year from now I might enter into a Cat 5 race without feeling/looking silly.