Trek, BikesDirect, or hold off till next year

Another way to look at this is that you haven't changed your bike in 20 years.  So spread out over that time, the bike's annual cost drops.  I recently replaced my 16 year old Bianchi with a Madone 5.2.  Pricey, but as I pointed out to mrs gearboy, I use my bikes a long time. (Of course, she is still on the 25 year old bike we got for $200 in med school....)

Anyway, I had tested a few bikes, and like the 5.2 the best (components, frame, etc).  There was a month long wait for the 5.2, or I could have gotten the 4.5 which was in stock.  But as mrs gearboy pointed out, I had waited 16 years to get the new bike.  Shouldn't I get the one that I liked best, instead of thinking for the next 16 years that I should have gotten "the other one"?

Pick the bike that fits you best, and think of it as an investment.

That's a valid point.  I'd hate to end up regretting my bike choice a year from now because I cheaped out.  I'm generally in favor of spending the extra money to get the thing I really want.  I guess my biggest concern at this point is how much I'll enjoy riding a road bike.  I haven't actually been on a road bike since I was a kid.  Triathlon is the thing pushing me to move back to a road bike and I suspect I'm going to enjoy the cycling part of the training but I'm worried that I'll be wrong. 

Since I'm just getting started with triathlon, I'm not particulary worried about my finish time.  At this point I'll quite happily take finishing - preferably not last - as an accomplishment.  Given my somewhat less than lofty immediate goals and my relative lack of experience (and related lack of understanding about what's important to me in a bike) I'm wondering if I should cheap out and/or defer the buying decision.  I suppose I could always ride my MTB in my first tri and hope that by then I'll know more about what I'm looking for.  On the other hand I'm not nearly as excited about training on my old MTB.

Decisions, decisions...

I think I'd be inclined to agree that the frame is the single most important component of the bike.  The question then becomes, how experienced does one need to be to actually appreciate the difference between a great frame and a decent frame?  And for that matter, how far up that slope should I talk myself?  When I started looking I figured a $800 bike would be good enough... until I started looking at the $1500 bikes and then the $2500 bikes.  Being a single guy I can spend the money where I want but, without someone there to sanity check me, I tend to get sold up... and up.

One odd thing... when I was in my LBS the sales guy actually told me it's all about the components... that the frame didn't make that much difference.  It seemed, at the time, like an awfully odd thing for a sales person in a LBS to say.  Of course the sales guy was actually a very young sales guy so he may just be somewhat ill informed.

Keep looking...I visit 4-5 bike shops typically when I buy a new bike. I ask tons of questions and soon it is clear which is the right one for me.

Lots of brands besides Trek and BikesDirect to consider.

Fit is number one always.

I say comfort is number one.  Made that mistake twice, probably will again.  I loved my panasonic becuase it was comfy...and since have never found a bike that was comfy again...fast as hell, but not comfy.

When I want to buy something big like this, I usually make myself walk away for a couple of days.  Clears your head.  You really consider what you want.  Come back, start again.  If you get carried away again, just walk away for 24 hours.

PS

Might as well break this out now.  Here's a spread sheet I made this week with as many bikes as I could find in 2 days that were under 1500 and at least tiagra parts.

I got a Mirage Pro and Im pretty happy with it.  It lists for $600 (w/ shipping inc) on ebay.  Its got some tri features (ie clip on aero bars) but its basically a road bike.  I got it as my first road bike in 20 years as well.  After looking at many LBS, classifieds and craigslist, I couldnt find a better deal for the price.  my other reasoning for getting this one is, if I decided that I didnt want to continue doing tri's, (and therefore road biking because I prefer to Mt Bike), I would be able to sell it and get most of my money back since there are very few used bikes in the $300 to $500 range (BTW Im sticking w/ tri's) 

So I am set for the next couple years and eventually I will either A) get a new frame and transfer the gear or B) get a real tri bike, and thats when I'll spend some cash on a better ride.  But this was a good option for me to see if this was something I would want to continue w/ without having to drop a lot of $$. 

Thanks for sharing the spreadsheet, that'll save me some time and give me some stuff to look at!  Looking at everyone's comments I think I need to spend a bit more time looking around and finding out what's out there.  In the end it'll be worth the extra time to find something that's a good, comfortable ride at a good value.  Thanks everyone for the feedback!

 Jason