Originally Posted by
Andy_K
The reason I bring up the Jake is that it comes standard with STI shifters (and a triple crank if you have a preference there), and it's about $100 cheaper. As you say, you could add brifters later, but you should realize that it will cost you about $300 to do it later. I'd suggest that you ride the Cross Check and the Jake and see what you think of the different shifter options. Bar ends may not be bad, but IMO STI are sweet.
I forgot to mention, with regard to Tiagra vs. 105 vs. Ultegra, I've got each of these on various bikes right now. The Ultegra shifters are better with shifting multiple gears at a time, but the Tiagra stuff is pretty good when properly adjusted and the 9-speed cassettes are much cheaper than 10-speed. So don't let the Tiagra components on the Jake worry you. I've got a few thousand miles on my Tiagra shifters, and haven't had any problems with them.