I have been planning to transition from my 2003 trek 7500FX to a road bike. Today I test rode a few bikes. Although I could detect some differences among frame materials, components, etc., the big difference was the road bike style itself (vs my current hybrid).

I'm not quite sure how to get around this to make a reasonable choice. Originally, I planned to spend $2000 - $2500, but now I'm not sure I'm even going to like riding a road bike. Perhaps I should just spend $1000- $1,500 and figure out if I even like road bikes.

The Trek hybrid was my first bike. At that time, I test rode various bikes and when I got on the 7500FX I "knew" it was the bike for me. I tried 5 bikes today and walked away feeling uncertain that I want a road bike at all.

I tend to like longer rides (eg, 40-100 miles; last year did a 560 mile Aids Ride), so getting a road bike makes sense but now I'm not sure.

The bikes I test rode were:

Trek Pilot 2.1 (no 5.0 or 5.1 in my size at close by shops)
Specialized Ruby Comp
Cannondale Synapse
Bianchi Veloce
Specialized Allez

Any thoughts or input would be much appreciated.