Originally Posted by
noise boy
I am not sure what you bought, but having just gone through the entry-level road bike thing myself last summer, I can tell you from experience that you aren't going to find alot of bikes from reputable manufacturers below 700.00, and most run closer to 900.00. You can get cheaper from performance and online, but alot of those bikes come with sub-sora shimano components. At the 700+ range it will be all sora/tiagra and have a carbon fork, but you don't have to believe me, check for yourself.
A new leftover 2007 Jamis Ventura Sport that I bought in 2008. Equipped with 2200/Sora and it has been great for many thousands of miles. As a matter of fact I am going to be riding this sub sora bike from my house to Sioux City (100+ miles) for RAGBRAI on 07/24/10 and then riding the piece of junk another 68 miles to Storm Lake Iowa the very next day. I have even raced the bike twice. In June I placed 14th out of 132 in the biking portion of a Duathlon.