Not sure what a compact chainset is or what advantage it would be over a say normal one. Sorry to sound so dumb, but I'm not going to try and fake my way through something, I'm 49 years old and not going to start now. hehehe I have looked at Felt, and Trek only. My local dealer dropped Cannondale a year or so ago, he said they started mass producing them over seas and had very few dealerships to sell them in the US now. Sort of scared me a bit with that statement. My friend has an older Cannondale and he swears by it. This is a very, very hard decision to make. I didn't know there was so much in trying to buy a bicycle. My head is still spinning. The 2010 2.3 is $1,549.95 and some other things will need to be bought of course, I figure on having right at two grand in it when all is said and done. That's a LOT of money for me. My main thing is this: I don't want to have to buy another one in a year or so, I don't ride all that much, mostly on a paved trail around town. I thought I would venture out onto the open road with a road bike. Like I say, I'm very flustered over it and just want to make the best choice for me. Sorry to bore you guys so much. Thanks so much for the replys though.
Frankie