[jandrese]

There's a bike shop that opened near me but I've had the impression that most of their income comes from the coffee shop in the front and the bikes are more of a passion of the owners. They're nice folks, but their bikes start at $800 and go up very quickly from there.

I actually did give them a chance and tried out a couple of the bikes when I was looking to replace my tired out commuter bike but I just couldn't feel the $600 premium. The biggest surprise is that the shifters didn't even feel any better, it was the one area where I expected the better bike could really make a difference but they were no better at shifting quickly or under load than my old shifters.

[walshemj]

That's about the sensible minimum for a decent long lasting bike I definitely noticed when I went from cheap MTB to one twice the price the stopping power was phenomenal I almost sent my self over the handlebars in a driving rain storm as I was used to the soggy breaks in the wet of my old bike.