Hearing about the sudden failures of carbon (which freaks me out a little) - I am thinking of going with a steel road bike as my first road bike. I also understand that it offers an extremely smooth ride as opposed to carbon where you feel every bump and crack in the road.

I am a little spoiled because I test-rode all these carbon bikes with the ultegra gruppo and that is definitely what I want.

As far as how I ride, I want to go fast and to keep up with group rides, but I am not shooting to win any races or anything. I ride a lot (60-90 minutes a day, most days) so I'd like it to be comfortable.

The only off the shelf steel bike I can find with a women's specific design and ultegra shifters (rear derailleurs, anyway) is the Jamis Quest Femme. I am short (5'4") so leaning towards a WSD if possible.

If you have a steel road bike, what did you choose and why? Do you find it much slower as compared with carbon?

Can you recommend something that will suit the kind of riding I described? Or should I try to go for a custom build?

Thanks so much!