Every commuter is different and most of us have set up a bike for our unique commute requirements, so I won't go into specifics. But I think the classic touring bike, such as the Trek 620, is a good start:



Traditional but relaxed geometry, long chainstays, braze-ons for racks and fenders, high quality steel. Personally, I commute on a fixed gear but lots of folks have hills and bad knees so they'll want gears. How about going back to the Campy 1010 long horizontal dropout to accomodate both fixed/ss or derailleurs?