I bought a Mondial for one of my sons and it has a nice, smoothly welded aluminum frame, but is otherwise indistinguishable from a BikesDirect bike...maybe a tad more money for similar parts spec. I also have a Bottecchia sold by BikesDirect and suggest you look at those on Ebay. The Bottecchias have really nice aluminum (Columbus Zonal) or carbon frames in your price range.