I've been doing a fuck-ton of cycling over my disgustingly long summer holidays and I've come to the conclusion that I need a new bike.

I've been doing 30/40 mile rides in the afternoon round where I live but almost entirely on road and I have an old mountain bike.

I've been toying with the idea of getting A PROPER ROAD BIKE/RACER/WHATEVER YOU CALL THOSE DROOPY HANDLEBAR EFFORTS as I think I would go faster and it would be more efficent.

But... I wandered into my local bike shop and the thin-tyre-lycra-nazi type bikes are all more money that I spent on my motorbike which is pretty insane as that has a 1.1 litre engine attached.

I don't have a spare 3 grand to throw around (the cheap ones were only 1500, even so...)

So.... thoughts? Do you have a race bike? Where did you get it from? Is buying second hand a good idea? Ebay? Specialist shops?

Bikes.