Hi everyone!
I am thinking about buying a bicycle and after researching the topic for a while I am still not sure which bike to choose. I'd be really greatful if you could help me with this. Here are the things I am planning to use it for, arranged by priority (from more important to less important)
1). Work commute. I am rather scared of big roads so I've planned my commute avoiding major ones. My path goes through roads like this:
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8038/photoss.jpg
but eventually goes like this
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/8863/photo2epl.jpg
http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/780/photo3nk.jpg
and then like this
http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/5564/photo4vi.jpg
http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/6605/photo5fp.jpg
because this allows me to avoid relatively busy routes.
I know that road bikes are not designed for such conditions, hybrids are supposed to perform ok and mountain bikes are supposed to be good for that but I am not sure how far on this scale my case is. I.e. do such roads leave me any choice at all or should I consider mountain bikes only?
2). Grocery shopping. This is not a concern because roads to shops don't get any worse than what I'll have to deal with on the way to work. It would be nice to have ability to attach a grocery basket to the bike when needed but in reality I can live without that and use backpack instead.
3). Travelling around area. I like seeing places and often I prefer remote, less crowded places meaning that I'll likely be eventually ending up on roads such as on the later photos rather than on the first one. However I won't be doing anything crazy either, i.e. I won't be riding/falling down some random mountain so I don't need one of those completely indestructible bikes.
4). Long and remote jorneys. It would be awesome to have long jorneys using a combo of public transportation and bike. For example pack up the bike to fit it into something like greyhound bus or amtrak train, go to some big park for weekend, cover big ditances there (I am thinking of something like 100 miles per 2 days) and then get back using same bus/train again.
I don't have a set budget yet but was thinking about something like $1k, may be up to $2k if it's something really good and worth it in my case.
I do know differences between bikes but that it is theoretical knowledge only. I know that I probably need a mountain bike for those ground roads but I am not really sure if road or hybrid is completely not for my case or would it just make things slightly uncomfortable. Then again, I know about folding bikes but I don't know how well they perform on such roads and also on long rides (as well as I am not sure whether it is too hard to disasmble/assemble mountain bike for travel on bus or train). And finally I don't know if covering big distances is possible on a mountain bike at all. Theoretically, even if it goes really slow, I'd be able to cover those long distances because the day is long. However may be it takes too much effort and that goal is unrealistic, I don't know.
Please let me know what you think, and thanks for reading all this!