Originally Posted by
Jeff Wills
The first criteria for buying a particular bike is this: does it fit? Nothing else matters- a $2,000 bike will beat you up if it doesn't fit your body. A $500 bike will carry you to the ends of the earth if it fits right.
Originally Posted by
SlimRider
This is the BEST advice you're ever going to get in this thread, buddy!!! 
^^^that times a million.
Unless you have more money than Bill Gates I think it's maybe not the smartest strategy spending $2k on your first bike. I've been riding for decades and out of the hundreds of bikes I've owned, and the dozen or so i have now it's a humble mid-range steel framed touring bike (Surly LHT) that has turned out to be the one against which all others are measured, including some road bikes that have run very close to 5 figures.... but that's just for me, I'm sure it'll be a different one for you. The point is that I'm 99.999% sure that your first bike will only be a stepping stone to the bike you really become 'ay one' with but as yet you can't know which one that will be, and perhaps that may even be your 3rd or 4th bike. I'm sure you'll be happier in the long run if you put, say, $500 into your first bike, and save the remaining $1500 for your second bike.
Even if you get a really nice, expensive second bike, you'll still have the cheaper first bike to ride on those occasions you'll be locking it up in potentially risky places for theft where you would be crazy to lock up an expensive bike, or maybe you'll throw a rack, fenders, and lights on it and turn it into a utility bike.... you have lots of options, a lower priced first bike won't go to waste once you get the flashy new big-ticket roadie.