Angus is cool, it has the good tubing, but no cable stops to run a rear brake if you want to go freewheel some time in the future, and lots of folks love the threaded stem but I like the flexibility of threadless. It's too bad its the only IRO on-sale/available right now.
That being said, There are many, many happy IRO owners out there, including me. TGS above had an issue with IRO, but I didn't and lots of others haven't. I got my bike fast, just as I ordered it, and it worked out of the box.
You write as if you never want to learn to take care of your own bike. I'd say to you that it isn't difficult for 90% of what you'd be doing, and that includes assembling an IRO from the box. The most challenging part of putting my IRO together was getting it out of the shipping carton without getting styrofoam packing bits all over the house.
You are in school. Make some friends with some peeps that ride nice bikes. They can help you put your bike together. I am sure that basic bike mechanics is no harder than whatever you are studying right now. I also see it this way: You are here on this forum, which is a pretty specific place for fixed and single-speed enthusiasts. You came this far looking for advice. [i.e. you did not just buy a random bike from costco] Therefore I would argue that somewhere inside you is a latent "bike person" who wants to emerge. Don't worry about the assembly, you can do it.
Yes - 28's are great for crappy roads. I ride 28's in SF city.
No - local bike shops will not generally be stoked to assemble the bike you bought online. However, the peeps in your school's bike club or bike team are a different story. Go peer-to-peer on this one.
Yes - the Angus can run riser handle bars fine, though you might need to insert a shim between the bar and stem, because likely the stem is for a 26.0 bar and the riser bar will likely be 25.4.
I paid for the front brake, and I think you def. need a front brake since this is your first fixed gear bike. You don't need to get it from IRO though for $50, you can order a brake and lever through your local bike shop or online. I bought a front brake from IRO and it works fine. I ended up buying a new lever for the riser bars because the lever that came for the bars on the bike (my case bullhorns) did not work on the skinny riser bars. I also replaced my brake pads because the IRO ones weren't as grippy as I wanted.
Since you live on flatland, you can get a bigger chainring and smaller cog, but don't go nuts. I run a 46 front and a 17 rear (72.4 gear inches on a 28 tire). You might try a 47 front and a 16 rear (78.6 gear inches on a 28 tire). You can push up to 80 gear inches if you want for flatland. Depends on how strong you are and how fast you can spin. [Edit: I guess you dont get to choose chainring size, just cog size]
Play with this calculator:
http://software.bareknucklebrigade.c...it.applet.html
Also, dig the local advice posted above, maybe those guys would help you build up yer bike.