Originally Posted by
Jarrett2
OP, how serious are you about comfort? What types of roads are you riding on?
I've ridden Domanes and Emondas. I've owned a Specialized Roubaix, Lynskey R240 and a number of steel road bikes. Once I rode steel, the rest of them seemed unnecessarily uncomfortable to me.
If you are serious about comfort on the bike, there's no beating a good steel bike. And you can get one with Di2 and disc brakes if you really want one. After having a few disc brake bikes, I was happy to get back to non-disc brake bikes personally.
And the weight difference between modern steel and the ones you are looking at is not that far off:
$5800 2016 Specialized Roubaix SL4 Pro Disc Race UDi2 size 56 - full carbon with all the carbon goodies
Considerably less expensive size 58 Gunnar Roadie (steel) with heavier wheels and cheaper groupset
What worries me about steel/Ti bikes is that I often need to rder them online and I prefer not to for my first real bike. I know it'll cost me more to get it from a LBS but establishing a good relationship with a LBS is also important.