Hi,

My first post and a typical newbie question. I am thinking of cycling to work (20km round trip), commuting out of central London into Canary Wharf and then the reverse on return. I currently commute on a Vespa, but servicing costs are more than I pay for my car and I figure riding to work would supply me with a bit of exercise.

For those that arent familiar with the route, half would be spent hacking around (semi-busy) streets, roundabouts and lights, with the other half being on a dedicated cycle lane.

At work, I sadly have no dedicated underground parking, and hence will be parking in public, I think the latter might actually be safer as the "secure" underground car park where I park my Vespa is deserted throughout the middle of the day. With no CCTV other than on the entrance and exits, it seems to me like an easy target. In public at least means people are around.

Finding an LBS that has the models I'm considering under one roof isnt going to happen. It would be nice to have a bike that can do a little nit of trail work for the weekends, but primary use will be commuting.

My general questions are as follows:

Hydraulic discs vs V-Brakes, discs reign supreme in wet weather?
Front suspension, worth it if they can be locked out, or adding unncessary weight?
Wheels, will 26" suffice, or am I best on 29ers?

The models I have been researching on the web are as follows:

Marin Novato - good looking bike, '08 model can be had for £480 on the web or so. My reservations on this bike the 26" wheels, am I better of with a bike rolling on 29's?

GT Transeo Ultra - more up market than the Novato, owned a GT MTB as a kid and loved it. This bike has front forks with a remote lockout on the handlebars, and looks to have fairly knobbly tyres in 29" rims. Not sure if the forks add unnessary weight, and whether the tyres would be sub-optimal. Can be had for sub £750 when I searched the web.


Kona Dew Deluxe - Price inbetween the two above. Admittedly I prefer the above two, but have heard some very good things about the Dew series, but also some comments on how heavy the bike is.

At the end of the day, a little bit of guidance would be much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance