Originally Posted by
Hot Potato
Think about a steel touring bike. $800 to $900 for a Fuji touring or a Jamis Aurora. That leaves you a hundred bucks or more for accessories, like kickstand, rack, clipless pedals, or bag. I suggest a touring bike because the rack braze ons will be there, the comfortable road geometry will be there, comfy wider tires will be there, top bar brake levers are on the two bikes I mentioned above.
I understand that there are about 10 flat bar bikes for every drop bar bike, and that the flat bar bikes come in very attractive price points. But an inexpensive touring bike makes a great commuter and all around utility bike.
Since you are new to biking you only can think about what you want to do with it. Sure you want to ride that 2.5 miles to work, and do some longer weekend rides, but what if you love cycling and want to do club ride? Short tours?
You may want to go on the cheap side, maybe used, and see what your needs are in a few months. I pulled the trigger and got a jamis coda sport because it is steel and ha braze-ons for racks in the front and back. I like the bike, as it can do almost anything i want to do with it. However, since i got that bike i realized that something i really enjoy is touring,, mainly weekend tours at this point. With so many great areas to ride to in the bay area, how could you not want to explore them by bike.
What if you want to ride over the mountain to big basin SP, or to santa cruz? What if you want to ride single track trails in the SC mountains? There are too many options out there, and we can only give our suggestions. Many folks i know have buyers remorse about their bike because they bought it wanting to do one thing with it and then realized that they like to do something entirely different.
Go for a cheap used road bike and reassess you situation after a few months. A used bike will not really lose its value in this area and you can probably resell it for the price you paid, and then you can get the bike that will truly suit you and your needs.
Edit: Oh yeah, i quoted hot potato because i was originally going to suggest a touring bike. It really is the all around bike.