What would you do?

[Owlie]

Granted, the mechanic in your shop likely has more experience on how well these components work, but I would suggest not swapping anything out until you see how the components perform. Otherwise, you may be just spending more money unnecessarily. And with brakes, I'd suggest swapping out the pads first if you're not happy with the Oval's stopping power. You'd be suprised how much of a difference good brake pads, e.g., Swiss Stop and Kool Stop, can make.

The brakes I'm not so worried about. I'm using Tektros right now, and my bike is a mishmash of Shimano (shifters and derailleurs), SRAM (chain and cassette) and FSA (crankset) components. So it's not a huge deal to not have brakes that match unless there's an issue with performance. As far as the crankset goes, one guy at my workplace loves it and another hates it.

However, new dilemma: New road bike vs. CX bike. The roadie would probably be the 2013 version of Bike 2 or a Supersix (if I can afford it). The CX bike is in the vein of the Surly Crosscheck. It's not a performance-oriented CX bike--it's designed as a do-anything steel bike, with road parts (Apex) and low gearing, and disc brakes. It's a fairly relaxed geometry bike. I like the versatility of the CX bike (off-road riding!), but BF is concerned that I won't like riding off-road (he doesn't, and I'd like to ride with people when doing that sort of thing) and I'll have bought a bike that isn't what I want in a road bike. The other option, I suppose, is the "performance" CX bike (Spec Tricross or Crux, C'dale SuperX, etc), but that seems like a bit of a waste if I'm not actually competing.
Help?