Jan 17 19:31 2003 from Josh 
OK, probably a road bike.  First things first: a frame.  You're general 
choices are steel, aluminum, carbon and titanium.  For frames, you're 
interested in (stiffness / comfort),  strength, durability, and cost. 
Stiff frames will tend to be have better performance (because less of your 
energy is being put into flexing the frame, and being lost in waste heat) 
but are somewhat less comfortable. 
  Steel frames tend to be high end and low end, and there are probably  
some good middle-of-the-road steel frames out there, but I don't know of 
any...  Low end steel frames (on cheap bikes) should probably be avoided 
because they are very heavy.  Expensive steel frames are some of the best 
frames out there.  Steel tends to be pretty durable (but will rust over 
time if not well cared for, so you need to watch for that), and can be 
easy to work with, though some of the spiffy-new types of steel aren't 
really all that easy to work with.    Prices on steel frames are all over 
the place, depending on quality, brand spendy-ness, type of steel used, 
etc. 
  Aluminum frames tend to occupy the low and medium end of frames; they  
are stiff, light, but not terribly durable.  (they don't flex very nicely, 
but then they don't corrode, either.)  There are some bad aluminum frames 
out there, but there are some thoroughly useable ones as well.  Not to be 
ignored, by any means. 
  Carbon frames are newish, and have really done some neat-o things.  The  
occupy the mid to mid-high frame world.  (I have a carbon frame, BTW: A 
Trek 2400, IIRC).  They are light, flexible (to a point; then they shatter 
rather than bend more) but not particularly durable (I don't know that I'd 
be comfortable in buying a carbon fiber frame unless I knew the person 
took care of it and hadn't crashed it...) 
    
 Titanium is kinda the spendy-goodness of the frame world.  Very high end  
frames; very light, very durable, can be stiff or somewhat flexy (these 
frames tend to be geared towards professional level bicyclists, so they 
tend to be made very stiff).  These are very difficult and expensive to 
make and repair, so they are very expensive. 
  Standard frame brands are (in no particular order): Cannondale, Trek,  
Specialized, LeMond, LiteSpeed, Kestrel, Bianchi. 
 Next, the gear.  The two standard for bike gears / breaks are Shimano and 
 Campagnolo (I use Shimano, and I've mainly seen Shimano locally.  Some 
people's religion in Campy, and that's fine, too. :-) ). 
 If you're interested in a bike that'll deal with long rides, I'd suggest  
getting Shimano 105 grade or better (Ultegra, Dura-Ace) components. 
Really, even my 105s are a bit of a pain for the amount of riding that I 
do, which isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things.