Originally Posted by 79pmooney

I"m 72 now but anytime between 10 years ago and 50 it would have been an early '80s Japanese sport bike with fender eyes and clearances; probably made for 27" wheels/ I'd run 700c. Fix gear. Brakes. Fenders. (For both the wet and cleaner clothes all year around. Don't believe me? Do the same dry ride with and without fenders. Hand wash your clothes after each ride.) LowRIder rack and front pannierss. A frame mounted U-lock. Bike only gets cleaned in areas that need work.

Fix gear for simplicity, reliability and the great sense of awareness in traffic. (Assuming you already have fix gear skills.) Now, living in hills could rule that out. Also, fix gear gives better exercise/mile or for a given speed than geared. And is a real plus in slippery conditions. LowRiders and panniers allow carrying real weight while climbing out of the saddle (remember, fix gear). Weight in back twists the entire frame when yo sway the bike to climb the hard stuff and is hard on your arms.

Old, beat up looking bikes stay yours far longer in cites with bike theft. One of the "rules" is see to it there is a better looking bike in the rack than yours. (Hence the no-cleaning except where necessary.)

A well set up steel beater with horizontal dropouts and the appendages I suggested will serve you very well on the commute and can be a fun ride. I would seek out stems to get the fit right on. Jump on for my ride into the city and they first block or two would be the reminder that this isn't my high end road bike. It weighs a lot more. But by about the first 1/2 mile, I'm into the ride on a bike that fits perfectly and suits this ride just as nicely. All's right!

Edit: I had such a fix gear commuter. I called it one bike but everything got replaced at least 4 times, including frames. Frames, years and rough mileages: Parts just came off the last frame and bolted to the next.

Peugeot UO-8 Set up fix gear 1976. Died in a crash 1982. I think about 17k miles fixed. Replaced by:
Sport Schwinn, Japanese built. Stolen 1986 with 8k miles but the Camy fix gear wheel wasn't on it and continued on the:
Sekine. Broke 1990 with about 8k miles. Replaced by:
Miyata 610. Crashed 2010 with 27k miles. Replaced by"
'83 Trek 4-something. Still going with 22k.