I had much the same experience with Smiley.

I am a little under 5'5". When I went to buy a road bike, I had fittings by Smiley and then by Erik Moen. I took that info and did a little spreadsheet (and I am NOT very OCD--I just wanted to get it more or less right, since the bike I had then was too big) with desired ranges of top tube length, seat tube angle, stuff like that. Smiley let me borrow a Rodriguez with 650c wheels for four days to do some 20-30 mile rides, which I really appreciated. In the end, I chose the Bianchi because any change in the Rodriguez was a charge of $250, and I had a few changes I needed to make in their model. The Bianchi gave me the measurements I needed at less money. And I concluded that I didn't particularly need 650c wheels either. But I did like the Rodriguez bike.

I think R&E are a bit like the Rivendell of the West--by which I mean, they have some VERY firm beliefs about bikes and how they should be. They seem to push 650s a lot--there's another article about them in the newsletter we got today. I think they're good guys and make fine bikes. It just helps to be aware of what each shop's beliefs are so you can filter them out for yourself when you need to.

We rode from Logboom to the expo and back yesterday. Saw Mimi and RD, which is always fun, and MM_QFC. Went to both the swim and bike tri lectures. Liked the swim lecture fine; bike lecture was okay. I still have plenty of questions so will be looking at some tri books and talking to some of you...