I can start by saying that I already have a road bike, and it doesn't work well for commuting. The skinny tires, in particular don't do well on anything other than decent quality pavement that happens to be dry, and while the trail to the office is paved, the condition is pretty rough and the ride isn't very enjoyable. Because of this, I am thinking of some sort of hybrid (mainly to get fatter tires), but I haven't narrowed it down to any brand or model.

I was also hoping that I could also use the bike for longer multi-day rides on trails that have crushed stone or gravel. Things that I prefer to avoid when on the road bike. But I don't ever see myself doing true mountain biking.

The bike stores that I have been to have steered me towards bikes in roughly the $450 range, which gets you a pretty basic bike, but without a lot of the options that one might get if one spent a bit more money. No disc brakes, no suspension fork (whether or not that's a good idea or not is entirely another question). I can afford more, but I don't want to overspend on stuff that turns out to not be needed or turn out to be a maintenance hassle.

I have to admit that disc brakes sound like they might be nice, but then I started reading about brake fluid issues, and that got me to reconsider whether that's a good idea or not. Or maybe stick to mechanical disc brakes? The thing that makes them sound nice is that they would work better in wet weather, but I don't know how real that is.

At the moment I am just trying to come up with specs for what I just "gotta have", and for what I want to steer clear of - once I have that list, I can start to narrow down to brands and models. I figure that I will end up putting new seat/pedals on the thing anyways, so I am not too concerned about what a bike might come with in that department. The main gotta-have is obviously going to be a place to mount a rack to hold panniers.

Thoughts?