I'm looking for a little advice on bicycles. There seem to be a lot of people with road racing bicycle knowledge on this board.
I used to ride my Cannondale mountain bike a lot in college (8 years ago) but I don't have much experience with drop bar bikes. I just feel like the lack of experience might be dangerous on a long bike ride. My wife has done four Ironman races and said she felt much more comfortable buying a flat bar bike despite all of her time on the drop bar.
So far I've ridden a Marin and a couple of Cannondales. The Cannondale I seem to like the best is a Road Warrior 800. The 800 is $200 more than the 500 but it has Ultegra components vs. Tiagra components on the 500.
My local REI has the '06 models on sale for about $800 but they would have to get an XL frame shipped from another store. I need a cockpit length of 68.5cm and a saddle to pedal measurement of 100cm.
There are a couple of reasons I am looking to buy a road type bike. I would like to get back into some sort of bicycling for health reasons and I am riding in a charity bike race to benefit multiple sclerosis research. It is the MS150 from Irvine, CA to Oceanside, CA. My mountain bike with road tires is not going to cut it for such a long ride.
Am I unrealistic in wanting to use a flat bar on such a long ride? Should I just look for a bike to rent for the ride rather than buy? Is $800 a decent deal for a Cannondale Road Warrior 800?