Originally Posted by Cfiber

It sounds like you live a very rural area to me, despite the fact that your job is only two paved miles away from your home. You say that you live next to a mountain trail. Well that would imply that there's at least one mountain nearby. Therefore, I would think that cycling on mountain trails would not only seem to be a very tempting occasional activity, but it might also prove to develop into major past time fun, as well.

Two miles is not a very long commute. That's especially so, since it's on a paved road. Since you're going to be cycling for a couple hours every morning on a mountain trail, that means that most of your cycling will definitely be on some mountain. To me, that spells pure mountain bike, plain and simple. Well that's cool, because mountain bikes are some of the most versatile bikes in the world! There definitely places where a racing road bike dare not go, where a mountain bike will travel unchallenged with relative ease.

Therefore, I'd recommend the following bicycles:

26ers
1) The Jamis Durango Race
2) The GT Karakoram 2.0 @p
3) The GT Avalanche 2.0 @p
4) The GT Karakoram Hans Rey Limited Edition @p
5) The KHS Alite 1000
6) The Raleigh Talus 5

26er FS
1) The Giant Yukon FX
2) The Jamis Dakar XC Sport

29er HT
The Diamondback Overdrive Comp @p

29er FS
The Diamondback Recoil Comp @p