My fist bike (in 40 years) was a Giant Cypress, which I gave to one of my sons who lives nearby when I got my Specialized Diverge 16 months ago. Yesterday a shifter cable broke in the Diverge, so off it want to the shop and I borrowed my son's Cypress to ride 20 miles today (a typical distance for me). I was pretty impressed with the ride quality of the Cypress, which cost about one-eighth the price of the Diverge. Both bikes have 700x38 tires and high gear is 48-11 on both (older model of Cypress; the specs are different now). The Cypress was comfortable to ride, and the Shimano Altus drivetrain shifted very smoothly even though I'm used to Ultegra on my Diverge. The Cypress was slower for sure, and more work to get up hills, but if you're riding for exercise you don't really need the fastest bike. I was really surprised at how pleasant the Cypress was to ride. My thought was that if speed doesn't matter (not racing, or trying to keep up in a group ride), the Cypress is probably 90% as good as the Diverge at one-eighth the cost. No, I'm not going to give up my Diverge, but after my experience on the Cypress today my impression is that beyond $1000 or so you spend a lot of money to get a little bit of an improvement in a bike. (The Cypress cost me $450 at a LBS three years ago.)