Good morning Everyone,

Thank you for all of your replies. It's good to know what everyone out there in the community is doing and recommends.

Just an updated from my end. I've been riding in to work fairly regularly over the past few months and it's been going pretty well. But I am still at the crossroads of either putting money into my 1995 ish Specialized Hard Rock or getting a different bike. My Hard Rock will need new shifters, probably new wheels, etc...

A recent (this past week) setback was two flat tires. Riding in to work last week, I arrived without an issue (I thought), but when I was ready to head out, I noticed my rear tire was flat. There was a small screw or nail in the tire. I got that repaired over the weekend and even put on a more puncture resistant tire. Halfway in I got another tire. Bigger screw/nail this time. Very upsetting. There is some construction on my route in, but the road looked fairly clear. I probably should change my route? Or just an unfortunate coincidence?

Either way, that got me to thinking about getting a bike with even stronger tires. My colleague has what I think can be classified as a fat tire bike. It looks super heavy, but I rode with him and he was pretty fast. I'm not the fastest biker in the world though. My preconception of a fat tire bike is that they are slow and involve a lot of effort to get up hills and things.

Maybe not a fat tire bike, but perhaps something like mountain bike tires would make sense for me?

I've been looking at Surly bikes lately and kind of like them. I thought that my bike "knew" I was looking and that's why I got the flat tires ...

Thanks again for all of your feedback. I appreciate it.