Originally Posted by
copier
All of these are pretty much in the 800 price range (which would be about the extent of my budget) and seem to be pretty comparable. A couple of these bikes, though, have an aluminum fork as opposed to a carbon fork. The guy at the Specialized dealer here seemed to love carbon forks, but my question is whether a novice like myself would need that feature? Would I even notice a difference? My primary usage will be recreational exercise and maybe a century or two in the future.
I would be far less concerned about fork material than the number one (IMO) factor for choosing a specific road bike at your price range: gearing. You mention exercise and the occasional century. Are these flat, rolling, hilly, or mountainous rides? Do you have an idea of what gearing you currently need to comfortably ride the routes you want to ride? I didn't look at any of the bikes but given the "compact" in the name of some, I'm assuming they have compact (50/34) cranksets. Does that work for you or would you be better served by a standard double 52/39 or a triple or even hybrid gearing (48/38/28 or similar)?
Personally, I'm a fan of triples and despise compacts but a lot of that has to do with my riding conditions. I'd only begin to consider a compact if I was trying to build the lightest bike possible strictly for mountain climbing. For almost anything else, I'll take a triple. If I never left flat ground, I'd be happy with a standard double.