You are correct on the savings. Those flat bar road brifters came from Chain Reaction Cycles in Ireland for $30+. 8 speed touring equipment is still available in Europe and on Ebay. Now that the basic build is done without bashing the budget I need to think about changing out the headset for something newer in a cartridge style. Then to finish it right, I will have to score some rims and hubs for another wheel build. I hadn't built any new wheels lately and I was surprised at the prices on rims. CX33's have really gone up in price. Lately I've been buying and rebuilding wheels instead of building from scratch because that's significantly less expensive than a custom build. I feel the need though for one more set of Maxx's Mad wheels specials. (ultegra hub, CX33 rim, 32 spoke radial front half radial rear, 3x drive side. Everything tensioned at the max manufacturers limit.)

The best thing about this build IMO is the 34/50 11/32 gearing. The cassette made the difference as the 8 speed AW coded Shimano unit has a more even gear spacing which fits with the wide range of gears available. It's not a pace line 1 tooth per shift sort of gearing but all the gears are in play for the rolling hills around here. Since I ride alone this works for me.