"My LBS are good guys (small town, small town attitude) but they know Jack about Tri. "
I can sympathize with your small town dilemma. I live about 45mins. West of Montreal in a small town where our local guys don't know, or stock anything Tri.
If you are looking for a bikeshop that knows Tri - you will have to look farther than Montreal. I ended up buying my Cervelo in Ottawa(these guys can't fit Tri) and having it fit in Toronto at Endurosport. Having my bike fit by Fiona at Endurosport was more than worth the effort of driving to Toronto and back. Before the fit, I used to have aches,pains,numbness at all contact points and suffered on any ride more than 60km - I just did a 143km ride last weekend with no problems. That's worth a lot to me.
If you are looking for clothing & accessories only - then you can do pretty well at Boutique Courrier(sp) on St. Denis. They are not a bike shop, but they have lots of Tri apparel (wetsuits,runners, etc).
You can find a discussion about getting a bike fit in these areas here:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/...m.cgi?post=7635#7635
put the mettle to the pedal