Originally Posted by Mtracer

No rambling. That all makes perfect sense. Seems like what you might want is a hybrid bike. I'm not that experienced with all the terminology, but I think these are basically rigid mountains bikes (no suspension, front or back). So, you get wide tires without the bulk of the suspension and a wide range of gearing. These are not exotic and I think pretty common. Fairly common as a sort of "dad" bike for general riding with the family. But I understand, that just having two bikes is it's own issue for you.

There are quite a few storage options for bikes. So, you might want to look for those and see what might allow you to have two bikes. I use vertical storage where the bikes hang from their front wheel. The net effect, is a 2-3 bikes don't take up much more floor space than a single bike would leaning against a wall. This is if the system allows the bikes to be angled towards the wall. Of course, you obviously use up wall space. There are various versions of this from simply hooks to systems with a tray that holds the front wheel.