So, I will be purchasing my first road bike within the next few days. At this point, I'm likely going to stick with an REI bike, and the two that caught my eye were the Scott Speedster S50 and the Novara Strada
http://www.rei.com/product/791137
http://www.rei.com/product/797352
The S50 has 2300 with a sora rear deraileur, whereas the strada has 105s with a carbon fork. It's $900 though, whereas the s50s only $610
I realize that the scott has really bad components, but for a first road bike, would it really make that big of a difference if I'm ok with only being able to shift in the hoods?
I would mostly be riding commutes and such at around 10 miles each, with sometimes longer rides, but nothing too extensive.
I could always upgrade the components on the scott if i was really unhappy with them, right? Like the 2300/sora would be compatible with some Tiagra? I just don't want to spend a whole lot more money if I could be fine with the much cheaper bike. The strada is tempting though...
Thanks for the help.