Well, there's also the regular Dew, which retails for about $399 if I remember correctly...check www.konaworld.com.
Might also look into the Smoke series from them. Ugly bikes, but very functional from a city/commuting point of view.
Frame material will pretty much be aluminum at that price. There might be some companies making steel bikes in that range, but I coudln't tell you who they are.
As far as components, none of these are really great, but without the stresses of being in the trail, I would expect them to hold up pretty well. Alivio and Tiagra are what I had on my first mountainous bicycle, and while they don't shift as well as LX or XT (the next steps up), they still do a good enough job for commuting.
...there are so many companies and models available it's hard to give many specific recommendations. I'm sure a shop will steer you right. Good to have a nice relationship with the shop people.
no subject
Might also look into the Smoke series from them. Ugly bikes, but very functional from a city/commuting point of view.
Frame material will pretty much be aluminum at that price. There might be some companies making steel bikes in that range, but I coudln't tell you who they are.
As far as components, none of these are really great, but without the stresses of being in the trail, I would expect them to hold up pretty well. Alivio and Tiagra are what I had on my first mountainous bicycle, and while they don't shift as well as LX or XT (the next steps up), they still do a good enough job for commuting.
...there are so many companies and models available it's hard to give many specific recommendations. I'm sure a shop will steer you right. Good to have a nice relationship with the shop people.