I bought a bike (and now I want another one!) Recommendations?

[roguedog]

Roar - no worries.

I'd look at Jamis Aurora series, the Trek Portland or 520 and the Specialised Globe series. Giant probably has something like those mentioned above as well.

The Aurora and the 520 are touring bikes and the Portland and Globe I think are categorized more as commuters.

As someone said above, if you're afraid of the bike being stolen or dinged up or whatnot, maybe looking for a used one might be better. It's why I mentioned looking for a used frame and building up from that.

I got lucky on eBay for mine. Found an old 1992 520 for $200 in my area.

I just cleaned it up, cleaned and lubed the chain, got a Brooks, got some pedals, a rack (that I'd gotten off craigslist), trued the wheels, put on new specialized aramdillos ... and I was done. Hmm.. I guess to get it ready to ready I was in bout $400 by the time I was done.

Hmm.. if it fits you I'd also consider zen's Mariposa in the classifieds right now. That's nice bike by a good builder. Not sure if it has rack eyelets though.

Even if a bike doesn't specifically have rack and fender eyelets, you can use pclamps. I've seen folks do that too. Not a bad solution as long as you're not hauling like 40-50lbs of stuff. Will likely impact handling though. It's just not ideal. I didn't like how the panniers worked for me (heel clipping) so I ended up just throwing a Wald basket on top of the rack (using pclamps) to haul my commute gear and farmer's market prizes.

Have fun!