Buying my first road bike

[Owlie]

Perhaps stay away from the biggest names, and look at bikes from Jamis, Kona, Surly, Scott, Fuji, to name a few. You'll get more bike for the money.

For your budget, I'd look for 105 or Tiagra. Both are perfectly good. In fact, I'd go under budget and look at a nice Surly Pacer. Maybe a Surly Cross Check.

JMTC.

I think the OP would have a hard time with Surly. Those things run big.

[Koronin]

Welcome. At 5' 0", unfortunately it will be very tough to find many stores that have bikes you'll be able to test. I'm also 5'0". I was lucky to be able to test 2 bikes when I was looking. One was a Trek Lexa and the other a Specalized Dolce. The thing about this is I live on the NC coast, the Lexa I tested I was 5 hours away in Charlotte, the Dolce was over 2 hours away in Raleigh. (Happened to be in each city for other reasons so was lucky to be able test each one). What I learned was that I need a men's bike because I felt to cramped on the WSD bikes. I have shorter legs with a longer toros/arms. Definitely find a shop that is going to work with you and is concerned about what you need. Another brand to check out is Felt. Felt's WSD line is the WZ line. I bought an F series bike (which is a men's line that there is no WSD version of). I love the bike and it fits me wonderfully.

[Elphaba]

I think finding a good LBS is the first step and then find something you like that they carry. My guys (yes, they are ALL mine LOL) know my Giant's forwards and backwards and they practically drool when Dotty (the Inspire) comes in because she's the only one in Jacksonville, (that we know of). I went in before my first charity ride to replace a cap on the handlebars and walked out over an hour later because before I knew it, they had her wheels off, tuned her up (knew I had crashed her a few times ), polished her up and even reset my computer to standard time.. And didn't charge me a dime, so I felt obligated to by a Camelback bottle with their logo on it.