I recently purchased this bike and have put on about 350 miles on. Big selling points were the agile handling, disk brakes, strong wheel set and carbon fork. I live in portland oregon, where it rains an average of 196 days of rain per year. In this spirt, I replaced the rediculously small stock fenders with sks full wrap around. The disk breaks are incredible in the rain carring a rear load of 25 pounds and my weight of 215 pounds. They also create a lot less mess on the bike to clean off from the rain. I really like the wheel set, which is the same on the Lemond Poprad cyclocross bike. It takes a beating on the roads and is still true. Due to the disk brakes, there is no rim wear from the slurry of road grime and water that is normal in the winter. On point to consider. The bike has a slight upright stance and shorter wheel base resulting in fairly agile urban handling. This is compromise some what by a heavy rear pannier load. I often notice this when changing lanes and looking over my shoulder. All and all a good package for the money, when compared to more custom options. You might alos look at the Lemmond Poprad, Kona Sutra, and Co-Motion Mazama? for comparable cycles.
Cheers
