What do you wish you knew you before you bought your first nice bike? I am planning on purchasing my first nice bike ($500-$1000, nice to me is not a walmart bike) and am cautious due to the Dunning Kruger effect.

I have never had a bike not from walmart before, and while there are buying guides out I still feel uneasy. I have spent hours researching bikes and the parts, but I know there is some knowledge that only comes with time and experience. I just don't know what that experience is.

Here are some general questions that I haven't found answered online yet.


What are things on bikes you now consider a gimmick/weighted too heavily in your bike choice? (Brand?)
What aspects do you prioritize less? (Type of brakes?)
What aspects do you prioritize more? (Mounting holes for addons?)
What do you regret or surprisingly like about your purchase?


I am sorry if this is opinion based/not a specific question. With my lack of experience I do not know what questions I need to ask.

1-Year Update

Here is a brief update on my thoughts after buying a bike. For those curious it is a 2015 Trek DS 8.3 (Mix between road and off-road)


Biggest mistake: I wanted a bike that could do everything so that I wouldn't end up limiting myself in the long run. While what I bought works rather well as an everyday road bike, I always have the front suspension locked and don't need the disk brakes. It works well enough as a road bike, but in hindsight I should have focused solely on a road bike instead of something that was just good at everything instead of great at what I use it for 99% of the time.
Biggest plus: The DS 8.3 has a lot of mounting options for fenders and racks. This has proven very valuable as I am now in the position to be able to bike to work and it gives me plenty of options to add racks for my lunch and computer. I value mounting options a lot now as it allows me to highly modify my bike if I want without needing a new bike.
Biggest surprise: While better bikes perform better in general, they have much smaller tolerances and thus need more detailed care. I needed to learn to do a lot of the maintenance and upkeep again as what I knew was too vague to do it well. This also means that the day to day upkeep is slightly more. This may not be a surprise to many, but it was something I hadn't thought about at all.
Shifters, Derailers, and Brakes: When I was shopping I was initially overwhelmed by trying to decide which components were better than one another. In the end I don't have strong feelings for any of my components, they all work fine. I have ridden other bikes with different components and while they perform slightly differently, in the end they have never affected my enjoyment.


TLDR My advice from the experience is get a bike that is really focused on what you will be doing, not what you are considering doing. Find a bike that has mounting holes that will support varying uses down the road. Don't worry about all the details, find one that you like as a whole. Finally learn to take good care of it and be prepared to spend more time maintaining it.
Prioritize more: 


Tires -- the bike must allow me to use the tires I want to use.  I used to have a road bike that did not allow any tire wider than 25mm.  Any bike that cannot use 35mm tires is useless to me.  Some people are still under the illusion that narrow tires are fast, wide tires are slow; there is a bunch of research that indicates this is not true for tires up to 40mm, and at the relatively low speeds most people ride (&lt;25mph).  Wide tires allow you to ride on all surfaces without worrying about gravel, bumps, railroad tracks, bridge grates etc.
Fenders -- if it's too hard to install decent fenders, I am going to hate riding when it's wet.
Gearing -- if your highest gear is a bit too low, you're not giving up much. In the rare case (downhill+tailwind) where you could use a 53x11 gear for a few seconds, you'll just go a bit slower.  If your lowest gear is too high, there are some hills you can't climb, and other hills that you can climb only with great difficulty. To me, this suggests that overall lower gearing works better.


Prioritize less: 


Weight -- if a bike weighs 0.5 pounds less, but is uncomfortable on longer rides, that really limits my enjoyment.
Pretending to be a racer -- unless you are actually going to use the bike for racing, resist the temptation to pretend you're a racer and need the lightest wheels and the shortest wheelbase.  In practice, this is not useful for most people (heavy riders end up damaging superlight wheels, etc.)  Before you decide that compact cranks are for wussies and get a 53/39 crank, think about how much you're really going to use that 53/11 top gear. How fast would you have to go for that gear to be useful ?


Surprisingly like:


Internal cable routing -- I can attach a Revelate "Gas Tank" bag to the top tube, put it on any kind of bike carrier on the car, and easily carry it on my shoulder without cables on the top tube getting in the way