Hello all,

Although I've been commuting by bike for about three years now, I'm something of a novice about bikes, so apologies for all the incorrect terminology, misunderstandings and other rubbish I'm about to write.

I live in Edinburgh, Scotland and am in the lucky position of having £1000 to spend on a new bike. The bike will mainly be used for my daily commute (about 4 miles each way). There's a few hills involved.

So far, I've been doing this commute a hard tail MTB (GT Panterra) and I think think I'd like to try a different kind of bike.

I've spent a couple of days reading through the previous post and I must admit I've now got more questions floating around my head than I started with. So, I've tried working out what do/don't want from my new bike:

THINGS I REALLY DON'T WANT:

• Front Fork Suspension

THINGS I REALLY DO WANT:

• A rack that its onto the frame, not just the seatpost (I had one of those on my MTB, but stopped using it as it was a bit all overthe place
• wheels/tyres better suited to the fact that I cycle 95% down tarmarced paths/roads (with a little cobbled bit at the end, which really wakes me up).
• A bike built to deal with the poor roads/paths in Edinburgh (quite a lot of potholes, raised manhole covers, etc).
• Less gears - I've never used half the 27 gears on my MTB and when I do shift gears I tend to shift about 3 at a time.

THINGS I DON'T KNOW ABOUT:

• Brakes - my MTB has disk brakes and I love them. Reliable, powerful. However, the one at the back gets in the way of fittng a frame-attached rack
• Hub Gears. I like the idea of less moving parts exposed to grit/dirt/muck, but don't know if there's a downside to them.
• Handlebars. This is a biggy. I like the idea of drop handlebars, (more riding positions, etc), but I'm a bit scared of the thought of being less visible and havng less visibility. Hmm.
• MudGuards. Can't say I've ever seen the need for them yet. Occasionally I get a fine spray in the face, but that's sort of refreshing. Living in Scotland we're pretty used to being wet.

I bought the MTB thinking I might get in to doing some off road riding, but this hasn't happened (and I can't see it happening in the near future).

I can see that I might use my new bike in the future for a bit of light touring (c. 50 miles a day), which will mostly be down canal towpaths or surfaced bike paths.

Initially I was looking at hybrid bikes, but I'm coming to the conclusion that they might be too near to my existing MTB and a CX bike might suit me better (but they don't seem to come with brake disks).

Any suggestions of other factors to consider, or recommednations for bikes to look at gratefully recieved.

One last thing - it has to be a bike available with a UK based dealer.

Thanks in advance,

Craig.