One of the biggest myths amongst casual cyclists is the understanding that road bikes are fragile. They are absolutely NOT fragile. These bikes are meant to take a beating. Sure, you can't go jumping curbs and riding down flights of stairs, but urban riding will not mess up your bike. You have to be smart, but you won't break the bike. That being said, stay away from old Trek composite frames (like the one linked above), they are known to come apart. The way they bonded the carbon tubing to the aluminum joints has been known to fail, especially around the bottom bracket area. I have personally seen six of these old bikes come in with these problems. That being said, if you do ride it and it breaks, you can sometimes pull some strings with Trek and take advantage of their lifetime frame warranty. This means they send you the current model year's equivalent of that bike, and the current equivalent is the Trek 4.5 Madone (a $2100 full carbon road bike).
Just food for thought.
