Road bike recommendations

Personally I'd go for the Rourke in 853 with a carbon fork. I just changed the steel 1" to a carbon ahead on my fixeh and the difference is worlds apart. Rourke seem to be at a good price point, and come with a rep. I wouldn't go BJ for most of the reasons you can read about.

Rouke appears expensive as the price includes everything. Its actually very well priced indeed.

I did a load of research into audax frames, as a possible replacement to my commuter/everything bike (mainly browsing out of boredom though) . Looked into taiwan builders, US builders etc.

Defo get a carbon fork.