hey all new to the forum here.. im trying to decide between 2 road bikes as an upgrade from a POS walmart schwinn varsity 1200 w/ flatbar... dont get me wrong for 200 bucks its decent... i used to have a schwinn le tour 2006 'ish that had all sora parts and sora sti's with the thumb shifters and it had 50T crank and a 12t rear cog with some alexrims 500's.. anywho i killed it 7 years and had to downgrade to that varsity 1200 because of money issues...
im a commuter and use a bike as my main mode of transportation my whole life because of serious vision problems... but live in decent climate so full road bike with non knobby tires is fine..

honestly the schwinn le tour was about perfect for me ... anywho on to the bikes

Save Up to 60% Off Road Bikes - Motobecane Mirage S

OR

Save Up to 60% Off Road Bikes - DawesLightning1200

the dawes has better groupset (sora/tiagra) and for 50 bucks it seems worth the upgrade plus i can at least upgrade the parts 1 at a time.. but those wheels seem really garbage (in this price bracket mind you)

the motobecane is straight claris group.. so upgrades are kinda futile.. but the wheels seem much better ( wiedman dp18) and they seem to be on par with the alex 500 rims that were on my old schwinn le tour which is more than adequate

hmm desicions desicions! please help!

Thought about a used bike? In that price range you can get quiet good used bikes..

unfortunatly in my area its pretty quiet.. i scourge craiglist ect but no good turn up in need a 60-62 frame... but damn if i havnt seen some crazy deals on 52cm bike.. i mean theres evilbay ect but the shipping is cray cray or local pickup.. because they dont realize that fed ex is much much cheaper for shipping bikes and want to go ups for 85 bucks lol... on a super tight budget

On a tight budget, I'd go for an 8 cog at the rear equipped bike. Shimano Claris one.