I've seen these bikes on Amazon before and have been sort of fascinated with them. They typically get glowing reviews, and I have found Amazon reviews to be fairly accurate for me in the past. There is also a guy that reviews them on youtube and he's been very enthusiastic about it and he's put about 3000 miles into his.

I personally wouldn't worry about grip shifters on a bike in this price range. Heck, just a set of STI shifters can cost more then the entire bike, so it wouldn't really make sense to think about switching. I've gotten pretty used to grip shifters on my hybrid to the point where I actually like them. Actually my ideal touring bike would be a Rohloff equipped drop bar bike with the 14 speed Rohloff grip shift.

Looking forward to seeing you post pictures of your ride.