gerbus

Hellllllo cyclists. I'm a former year-round commuter cyclist (Vancouver) who's been off for a year or two due to:
1. Having a baby,
2. My body complaining (hips, legs really tight, wrists bothered by bearing a lot of my weight),
3. My bike falling out of maintainable condition (it's an old-school Nishiki 18-speed with 28mm tires).

I want to get back into season-irrelevant cycle commuting, but I need a new bike and am suffering from choice-paralysis, so I'm looking for some well-reasoned recommendations.

Here's what I'm after:

I want to be comfortable on my bike. A lot of that I assume is fit, so I want it to fit me really well (I'm 6'4, 36yrs old, and like a 61/62cm frame).

Mostly I'm going to commute with it (40mins each way), often in the rain (I want disc brakes).

I'm going to carry my laptop back and forth from the office (so at least one waterproof pannier).

I want to ride on forest paths (I don't care about jostle, I just don't want flat tires).

I want the option of camp-touring with it (so maybe two panniers and/or a rack).

I want to put a child seat / trailer on it.

I'm used to a slow gear ratio of 0.956 and a fast gear ratio of 3.57, so ideally I don't lose either end of that range. I like to go as fast as I can down bridges.

I like to switch up my wrist positioning a lot (end of the drops, front of the drops, sides of the bars, middle/top of the bars), but I also like to always have my fingers on the brake levers. On my past two bikes I put in lever extensions so I could brake while on the top of the handlebars. So interrupters or suicide levers or whatever you call them are important to me.

When I'm not in the drop outs, I like to have my back in a neutral relaxed (tall) position.

I'd like to spend under 1.5k CAD, don't care about buying a 2018 or 2017, but probably will buy new.

Help me find a bike! Preferably I want to just go somewhere and buy it and do a few mods afterwards. Not really interested in building up from scratch. Thanks!

DTG

https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5056-180/X-Trail-A60

RunForTheHills

I love my Surly Long Haul Trucker. It is available with disc brakes, but I got the rim brake version. I ride it in the rain with no issues stopping. I have mechanical disc brakes on my previous commuter and I really don't care for them. The alignment is fussy when you take the wheel off and put it back on and they squeak all the time. Hydraulic disc brakes are supposed to be a big improvement, but I am not sure you can put cross levers on those. It has long seatstays, which would probably work well with a child seat, but I can't speak from experience on that.

I recommend getting a dyno hub and lights if you can afford it. It's great to always have a light when you need it and never worry about charging it. I use an Ortlieb Office Bag with the QL3 mount for my laptop and use an Ortlieb Back Roller on the other side when I bring my running gear to the office to run at lunch. I mount them to a Tubus Logo Evo rack.

Darth Lefty 

I've been shopping and here's some help.

You can put a bike trailer on nearly any bike. Most hitches clamp under the axle nut like a washer. If there's no room, like due to a hooded drop-out, Burley sells extensions. If you get a thru-axle bike then there's several companies (notably Robert Axle Project but also Burley) who make special thru-axles to bolt on the hitch mount.

I have a Chariot for my twins, bought used, and like it a lot. Started with an InStep for the first kid, it was junky but functional. A used Chariot or Burley will do you a lot better than a new Walmart or Schwinn.

There are basically two kinds of rear kid seats. One kind clamps on the seat tube, and you need enough room there to do that. The other more common kind mounts like a rear rack. If you have a bike with eyelets on the dropout, you are good to go. Even if you don't have the upper rack mounts you can get a seat collar that has upper rack mounts and on some bikes like small-frame bikes or low-standover MTB's that might be better anyhow. If you don't have lower rack mounts, but you do have a quick release, you can find one that attaches through the quick release.

There are a variety of front seats available. The only one I tried, the Thule, was bad. Some of the others look better but kiddo outgrew them before I could try them. I feel like the limit for a front seat is around two for a small kid and less for a big one. But at nearly 4yo he's 40lb+ and still in the back seat though getting unwieldy.

donglebutter

I am 52 ride all winter all weather in Wisconsin. Love my Fargo. The stack height makes this a comfy bike. https://salsacycles.com/bikes/fargo/2018_fargo_gx_29

ryan786i

I have a Jamis Renegade Explore I'm really happy with. It's done well in pretty much all conditions through even some snow (though ice did present some obvious issues) and is pretty comfortable for me, if not quite so upright as something like a Salsa Vaya can be. I currently only ride with a messenger bag, but it'll take rack, fenders, pretty much anything you can imagine. And they are pretty rad looking as well

Boye

Your requirements seem quite close to what I was looking for (except the child seat, it does have a trailer mount).

I ended up with a Surly Disc Trucker: https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting...-commuter.html

mcours2006

I would ask OP what choices he's narrowed it down to. There's a myriad of options that would suits his needs. Does it have to have drop bars? Flat bars with bar ends might work better if you're riding with a child.

mcours2006

This:
https://www.bmc-switzerland.com/int-...ge-ac01-three/

Yeah, the price tag is steep. But if you live near the GTA (I assume you're in Canada), here:

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cruiser-comm...ike/1342584930

ptempel

Congrats and welcome to fatherhood!

Consider cleaning up the Nishiki and making it the bad weather bike. Can it fit 30mm tires? If so, then you could also get Schwalbe Marathon studded tires for winter commuting.

I wouldn't rule out rim brakes. But disc brake bikes should be plentiful nowadays.

I would avoid carrying the laptop entirely. Use a USB stick or external drive for files. If you have VPN access to work, then just either use RDP or VNC to your laptop. Or just copy/sync a few directories from the work laptop to the home laptop via VPN (this is what I do).

Consider some of the cyclocross/gravel/anyroad bikes. MEC has an interesting cyclocross bike for $1325:

https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5054-7...ty-One-Bicycle

or the Ridley X-trail for $1395:

https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5056-180/X-Trail-A60

Consider having the seller flip the stem to get a little more bar height. That might need a cable change if there's not enough slack. That's what I ended up doing on my bikes to help alleviate some lower back pain.

RunForTheHills

This wouldn't be allowed at many companies. More security conscious companies only allow VPN from company owned and managed devices. This allows them to ensure encryption is enabled on the device and patches and anti-malware software are up to date so that company data is not lost or compromised.

ptempel

Sure. My work has standard Windows builds but allows my team to run Linux on the desktop (fortunately). If my work was more strict, then I would push for a desktop at work (if possible). Then just VPN in and use RDP/VNC or whatever for remote desktop using the supported laptop from home. I used to work at a bank so I'm not unfamiliar with the extra security precautions/restrictions on using only "supported" equipment on the network. I'm now at a Hospital/School. So you can imagine the security nightmare of having to basically let everyone without an ID in the door.