Originally Posted by operator
We need to know your weight. The higher it is the more you have to pay attention to the wheel. Number of spokes, quality of the rim and quality of the wheel build.
I currently weigh 180 lbs, buck naked.
Originally Posted by operator
False, Sora does everything 105 does substantially cheaper. The only thing you are paying for past sora is for the bling factor and for lightness.
Really? There is absolutely no difference between them other than weight?
Originally Posted by operator
Also false, get a steel fork. Any sort of ding on your carbon fork and it CANNOT be ridden. If you're going for a all carbon fork, it necessarily has to be high quality and expensive. From the description you gave of what you want on a bike, carbon has NO place on it. There is NO reason to have CF on your bike at all. It sounds like you've fallen prey to the "must buy cool looking stuff I see in magazines syndrome".
False! No market syndrome. Short of going to suspension carbon seemed to be the way to go for shock absorption. Selected it for a practical reason. So your saying that there is no advantage with regard to shock absorption by going with a carbon fork over steel?
Originally Posted by operator
You need to test ride a couple of bikes to find out before you purchase. Switching to drop bars and associated STI systems is VERY expensive if you start out with flat bars. The converse is also true. For your purposes it sounds like flat bar is the way to go. Again - ride it and find out for yourself.
This won't be a problem. I'm looking for a bit of an all rounder right now. If I want something more specialized I'll buy another bike.
Originally Posted by operator
Not sure what seat stem is but there's also no reason for your seat or seatpost to be carbon. Complete waste of money.
Again, carbon has _no_ advantage over steel? And yes I meant seatpost.
Originally Posted by operator
$1k should get you a very decent commuter bike. Nothing terribly heavy and nothing terribly light either. Is this $1k including accessories as well? You WILL need full fenders unless you live in the desert and you may optionally want to put on a rack as well. To that end, your bike must have eyelets on the fork and 2 sets of eyelets on the rear stays to accept rack/fenders. There's no reason to buy a bike without these.
These recommendations dramatically change if you envision yourself doing some hardcore road riding (e.g not on MUPS) in the near future.
Nothing hard core planned. I just want a machine that will hold up and work properly every time I use it. I don't want to skimp and find out that xyz part sucks and have to upgrade it later.