Originally Posted by jrobe

"Looking for getting the maximum groupset for this money."


Agree with the others. This is one of the most common bike buying mistakes - concentrating on the groupset. That is kind of like buying a car and concentrating on getting the best tires and stereo. In fact, Bikes Direct business model is basically to take advantage of this buyer tendency (tease them with better components than the bikes at the LBS's and hopefully they will forget about the generic frames (that they can't test ride and know nothing about).

Components wear out and are disposable. Frames can last a lifetime if you pick the right one. I have one bike with Ultegra and another with Tiagra and they both shift exactly the same.