Originally Posted by
ericy
Giant OCR2. I hadn't given much thought to different tires on that bike - clearly there are limits to what the frame and the rims will take, but I am not sure what they are.
Edit: The trailer idea I am not wild about - part of the commute is to get on a subway train, and I don't think that's even allowed.
The Giant probably has severe limits on tire size. It's a shame that bikes like this are so stylish. It's possible to make a very similar bike with the only difference being tire clearance, but these are rare. The market hasn't shown a willingness to buy or build many of these.
The subway leg of your trip does knock out the trailer idea, so scratch that.
In new and newish bikes, a performance-oriented hybrid or a flat-bar road bike could be nice, and I'm not even sure there's a difference. In the old bikes arena, you have vintage road bikes that already have tire clearance. One of my most versatile bikes (among my too-many bikes) is my 1971 Raleigh Super Course. I've equipped it with various different handlebars, and that changes the character of the bike. Right now, it has flat-ish bars with bar-ends. I've had North Road (swept back) bars and also drop racing bars. The bike can take at least 32mm tires along with fenders.
With used bikes (and everything else) there is a time/money tradeoff. If you lie in waiting like an alligator, you can get something great for cheap or free. My Raleigh came from the curbside trash. When I built it up, I expected it to ride OK. I was wrong. It rides fabulously. I got really lucky.
Does this give you ideas?
Here it is 2013:
Here it is in about 2011:
Here it is in 2009:
