Bike price points for stepping up

next step is a tri specific geometry frame, so that you can achieve a real aero position. Entry level tri bikes start at around $1500. Once you find a bike (THAT FITS YOU) that lets you achieve the desired position, the next "step" is going to be at around $5k+ - superbike territory... where integrated front ends and such will "buy" you a couple more seconds. It's like a mountain... a road bike is the base, a tri geometry is the meat of the climb, and a superbike is the pointy top.

Very well put.

To the OP I went from a Giant Defy 3 to a Trek Speed Concept 2.5 ($1600). Very big difference and I have been very pleased.

Good question OP'er.  I have about 1800 into my steel road bike that I love and will never get rid of.  But I want to step into the world of a tri bike.  I think I can get my ave mph on an Oly into the 23 - 24 range on a tri bike rather than at 20.5-21 on my roadie.  However, I love RAGBRAI, group rides, centuries, etc so the road bike will remain in my life.

I'm thinking 3,500 for my tri with some additional upgrades.

I've have a few bikes that cost 4 figures, but if I ever spend $3500 on something with 2 wheels, it better have an internal combustion engine!

I paid WAY less for my motorcycle than I did for my TT bike.  Granted, the motorcycle was used and the TT bike was new.

Wowzers thats a big speedbump

I wrote some typically protracted, verbose, demerly-esque diatribe on price point once with charts and graphs.

Here it is:

http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/store/howmuch.shtml

And the summary if you don't want to read 5,000 words about bike pricing:

I love this chart!  Probably because it's exactly how I approached bike shopping.  It can apply to so many different things (adjusting the numbers of course).  When shopping for my bike, I found this to be relatively accurate, but my breakover price was $2500.  Unfortunately that was about $1000 over my budget.  I ended up finding a used bike, just a year old, that fell below my budget.  New it was $2200 so it was close to the breakover.     

An excellent graphic.  Let me add, from my experience, what the bikes in the peak value area will look like:

• Carbon frames, generally made in the same molds as the $10k+ superbikes, except using super expensive carbon fiber instead of super-duper-ridiculously expensive carbon fiber.  
• Components will be Shimano 105/Ultegra or SRAM Apex/Rival/Force, possibly an FSA crank, maybe off-brand brakes.  
• Wheels will be solid and durable but not particularly light or aero; excellent training wheels.

This is a great platform, you can spend a lot more money to save several 10's of grams, if you weighed the cash vs the weight savings of going to a $5k+ bike I'm pretty sure the stack of cash would be heavier.  This also leaves you plenty of opportunity to spend more in the future in the form of trick wheels, power meter, etc.