Hi-

I'm considering either the Soloist or the Talon (not SL) for primarily road use (long hilly rides in CO, no road racing) and some tri's (hope to eventually do at least a half-ironman). This will be my first and only road bike (...in a while, got rid of my Peugeot touring bike in '92 after discovering mtn biking); I'm 5'9", 150 lbs. I live in BFE and haven't been able to try either the Soloist or Talon yet, but will be heading out to Denver/Boulder to try some out in a few weeks.

So far I've heard excellent things about the Soloist in it's road configuration ("If Tyler/CSC has won on it, it can't be bad!"), and "good" things about it in the TT/tri configuration (as opposed to "near dangerous" for throwing aero bars on a standard road bike).

I've also heard good owner reviews about the Talon in the road configuration, but not much in the TT/tri configuration. Has anyone tried this?

I'm leaning towards carbon right now for smoothness of ride, but wouldn't want to sacrifice that too much for performance/durability. Does the carbon seatpost on the Soloist Team help smooth things out?

Any thoughts on all this? Any other bikes that come to mind?

Thanks!