Fair enough. Any of the brands mentioned would be good. I have a Motobecane and I love it. Great value for what it costs but if your buying from Bikesdirect than you have to do some minor assembly and you may have to adjust deraileur out of the box so if you are not comfortable with that you will need to take to an LBS to set it up which will end up negating most of the money saved buying from BD. As a bike commuter, I will say its not worth worrying about weight. If you add fenders racks panniers etc your bike will be heavy. Personally, i prefer a nice steel frame for commuting because its more comfortable on crappy roads