Road Bike Purchase $4000-$5000

Scott1 said:

Hey People,

I once again am in the position of purchasing a new bike. This time a roadie. I am torn between the Cannondale Synapse 2, Specialized Tarmac Expert, (or an 05 Pro at discounted price), or the Orbea Liege.

As far as I can see they are all great bikes, I just want to be sure I am getting a comfortable bike for longer hauls and maybe a little bit of competition.

I am just under 2 m tall, and weigh about 85kg, what advice can all you other riders out there offer?

Well, I thought that the fancy bikes were the way to go. If you are willing to build your own bike I would go with a fetich cycles bike from Arizona, USA. I picked up a frame on ebay brand new for 75 US dollars. 40 to ship and this is a very nice riding frame. I have it equiped with campy record and no problems. I like it for a number of reasons. The wife can tolerate such a purchase. I can focus on equipment, wheels, etc.. Yeah that sexy titanium bianchi I have hanging in basement is nice but I fugured if I wanted a super sweet light weight bike I would be better loosing the weight off of my ass and I would be saving money. I like showing up on a riode on a no name bike and making the so called dorks on the cool euro styled bikes a little confused. Did I mention that this purchase was under the wifes radar?
Good times for what it is worth.
You can also check out Chucksbikes.com. Another good resource.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&fkr=1&from=R8&satitle=fetish+cycles&category0=

i'm all about giant bicycles...tcr c series and they aren't all that expensive!