For what it sounds like you are looking for, I'd say you can't argue too much with that price. I've ridden the crap out of Sora equipped bikes in the past... no it's not refined, but with correct tuning it is definitely competent.

If you're looking for a cheapie to ride on a trainer... the only thing otherwise might be to scour craigslist for something. But New to your door, sounds a-ok to me.

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Man I SHREDDED craigslist the past few weeks. Found plenty of potential candidate bikes, but all needed more money than they were asking just to make them functional.....suddenly making a brand new BD bike less expensive and ready to ride. That is with me doing all the wrenching too!

My wife got a Motobecane Vent Noir 5 or 6 years ago from them ($599 I think) to keep at her parents when she was in town visiting. It was a bit cheaper then and was Tiagra RD and Sora most of the other stuff. It was actually nicer than I was expecting.

For a trainer bike where weight and shift quality isn't as important, you really can't go wrong.

I started out on one of the BD "tri" bikes with clip-ons (~$550), it worked for a few thousand miles of commuting and then I upgraded, and gave it to my brother. I also have another BD bike for use as a beater.

Only recommendation I have is to make sure you get one with real STI brifters, some of the cheaper ones come with the thumb button ones, which suck.

It isn't from BD but my commuter has Sora components and they work just fine. I actually prefer the thumb shifters.

It works, but it's extremely hard, if not impossible, to shift from the drops. Just an inferior solution to brifters, but it might not matter much for a trainer bike.

Not a BD bike but I have an aluminum sora equipped bike on my trainer that works just fine. Ride the heck out of it.

I admit to not rdiing the drops too much on the commuter, but with my short fingers, I can reach the thumb trigger more easily than the brifters. Might just be poor ergonomics of the Sora brifters though. Does make descending in the drops a bit more exciting than maybe it should.

I've owned one, my first bike when I got back into riding. The Sora STI shifters are complete junk. I broke a cable just about every ride I went on and the thumb button is horrible. I swapped those out for some used Tiagra 9-spd STI off ebay, which were a major improvement. The bike itself is kind of whatever, you get what you pay for (which isnt much)

I have two bottom end bikes from BD, one cheap commuter bike for me and got one for my daughter. In general, it's been ok, as long as you don't expect more than what you're paying for.
Two things to consider. I assume you can do your own basic wrenching - if not, know that it'll probably have to go for a tune up shortly after you put together (maybe somewhat defeating the low cost purpose). I had to true a couple of wheels and adjust brakes (I didn't care about the gears as much, so didn't do anything there). My daughter's bike came with some awful brakes, I upgraded to sora, and they've been fine (she only rides around the block though). In retrospect, I wouldn't have gone so low end for her bike, would have rather spent a few additional dollars and get functioning brakes.
I hope this helps.

Well, I lucked out. One last check to CraigsList and found a Specialized with 105 for $4hundy!

The latest Sora (3800?) shifts like the higher end compenents, they don't have the thumb thing on the side anymore.

I got a single-speed commute bike from BD. The frame and component quality was great for the price. The build quality was crap, so be prepared to check the tightness of all the bolts. They installed one of the tubes sticking out from between the tire and the rim; as soon as I pumped up the tire, BAM, new tube time.

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I have a boris fatbike. I replaced the crankset with X5 - 170mm more due to fit than quality, since all sizes from BD came with 175mm.

I'm happy with it so far.

I had a fantom cx for a few years. The only thing I didn't like were the tiagra shifters. I'm building up a CX bike with a frame from ebay and a mix of ultegra and 105 from Merlin and Chain Reaction, if the parts ever get here.