BIkE SUGGESTIONS?!?

i need a bike for doing casual riding around town, and also for doing a tri race in the future...any suggestions?

Do what I did. Find or purchase an old bike (in my case my brother in law and sister found an old 18 speed free spirit bike abandoned in front of their house that they gave to me). You can also find old bikes to buy in garage sales. Then take it into your local bike shop to get a tune up (procyclery tuned mine up for about $60 or so). It's a 33yr old bike but now it runs like new again. I bought some accessories so I could use it as a commute vehicle and to make it more comfortable to ride and the bike shop installed them all for me for free with the tune up. With about $250 (give or take a few bucks), the bike got a tune up, new brake lines/gear lines, a new seat and a new seat cover w/ additional padding, new rear rack, new front and rear lights, patch kit, new saddle bag, new gloves for me (my left hand gets sore easily while riding because of my cp and the thick padding on the gloves gives additional support). I also got a new floor pump and frame pump, and a lock/chain. Ofcourse I still need a couple more things (some of which are more wants than needs) for the current moment like spare inner tubes, spare outer tires, tire linings, speedometer / odometer, better upgraded front/rear lights for night-time riding, batteries for the lights, rear rack bag for work clothes, maybe upgraded handle bars, extra brake lines, better tools that are more specific to bicycles, etc. But with what I spent I got a much better bargain than I would have had I bought a new bike instead of tuning up an old bike and then upgraded.