I spend a lot of money on cycling, thousands of dollars a year, so I'm the last person to talk about not spending a lot of money on bikes. As others have said, if you love riding the bike, it's money well spent, but here's a personal story for you to consider. My wife wanted to get into cycling a few seasons ago for reasons similar to yours, so we visited a bunch of bike shops. She really liked one of the Rubys with hydraulic disks, which was around three grand IIRC, maybe more. I was supportive of whatever bike she wanted to get, but she ended up getting an aluminum 105 for under a thousand. She rode it a little bit the first season, but hasn't really ridden it much since then. She joined a gym and decided that she likes the classes there a lot more than she likes riding a bike, so her bike mostly hangs from the rack in the basement. From what I have seen, people who really get into cycling, almost always end up buying more bikes anyway, so the first one doesn't have to be the last one. Then when you get your next better bike in a couple seasons, you have a decent backup/rain bike. If it turns out cycling's not your thing, you don't feel so bad that your bike hangs from the rack most of the time.