In a similar mindset; had my 2013 Bianchi wrote off and without going into massive detail a new for old replacement is approx 3.4k which either the group representing me can supply a new bike or I can accept the 3.4k later alongside personal injury. At first I was excited at the thought of a modern Bianchi, Ultegra di2, disc brakes etc then I look at maintenance of hydraulics or even needing to do a bleed for something as simple as a stem change etc. Was in the shop looking at bikes of that value recently, Giant TCR's, Defy's etc - all nice bits of kit but nothing I thought was really exciting. I'm leaning towards something semi modern ie Ultegra di2 rim group, carbon wheelset from Elite/lightbicycle/etc that seem to be popular and building up something like an older Supersix evo, SL5, maybe even a CAAD10 or similar. Semi internal routing and preferably external BB would be ideal, plenty time for research still. Obviously we don't hold the same preferences for bike construction but I think everyone agrees pulling a bike out of the box will never be the same type of enjoyment as building it piece by piece.
