Originally Posted by rm -rf

Skip the flat bar bike, and look at drop bar bikes. If you start riding longer rides, maybe 2 hours or more, you'll like the drop bars. Just test ride one, you'll see that it's easy to ride, and comfortable too.

For upgrades, just get a saddle that fits you, and decent tires (like Continental GP4000S). The rest of the bike will be fine as-is. By the time you want to do a major upgrade, there will be lots of changes, so that you might want a new frame to handle the new stuff anyway.

I don't think that lower end carbon frames are all that much better than today's aluminum frames, anyway.