semax10

I trying to bike a good bike to get around NYC...I would be riding to and from work, around the city and some other basic riding....I'm trying to figure what type of bike (road races, road sport, mountain etc)....does anybody have suggestions?

pgoat

do a good search within the NE and commuting forums, this stuff has been covered a lot here.

bottom line - ride whatever you like. Any and all bikes are ridden and work fine.

1. do something with the tires to avoid flats - wider tires are great but narrow is fine if you use kevlar belted tires, tire liners , thorn proof tubes etc.

2. if you are gonna leave it on the street, either ride something really crappy-looking or expect it to get stolen. either way, get the best lock you can afford (top of the line kryptonite or the equivalent, unless it's a huffy or something fished out of the trash).

martianone

I live in fumbuck, but on occasion need to commute in Manhattan. IMHO a steel frame road or cyclocross style bike set up as a 1x9 is about optimal. Surly Pacer, CrossCheck or Soma Smoothie ES are good examples. The 1x9 set up with a 39 t chain ring and 12-36 cassette offers a good range, low enough for steep bridge "hills" and high enough to cruise nicely in traffic. 32 mm touring type tires are a reasonable balance between speed and taking road abuse. Fenders or splash guards are helpful if planning year around commute. Suggest LX/105 level components as a good mix of longevity and cost, Koolstop Salmon pads are very helpful when it starts to rain and that oily road scum/grim coats everything - just when you need to stop fast. Also a well built set of wheels of at least 32 spokes.
ps. above info in context - last winter I obtained a Bike Friday NWT with a nexus IGH - which has worked pretty well for a few short urban commutes.
Easy to maneuver in crowded areas, plus compact to store.

noteon 

Get one you love. If you don't do that, you won't keep commuting anyway.

I ride both a 120psi skinny-tire road bike and a 20" fat-tire folder all over NYC. Love them both.

roadiejorge 

What to get depends on what you're looking for in a bike; if you have a safe place to store it at your commuting destinations and want something more performance oriented then a road bike will do nicely. If you just want a bike to get you from point A to point B then any urban style bike will do nicely. I like road bikes so that's what I use to commute and I ride year round on them without any issues.

noteon 

So those skinny tire tracks in the snow on the greenway last January were you?

idiotekniQues

if you are gonna do mostly greenways and parks, you can use a road bike. i ride all over the city and i find a performance hybrid to do the trick perfectly. lockout suspension makes the well-groomed greenways fun and then the potholed streets the suspension takes care of. if you are riding in traffic a decent amount, you don't want drop bars. i see lots of road bikers in nyc, but pretty much never outside the greenways or central park. riding in traffic and urban roads is conducive to a more MTB stance and geometry.

and definitely get flat-resistant tires. i've put about 400 miles so far on these schwalbe marathon cross 700ccx38 and no flats.

1nterceptor

If you don't know what you want, you're lucky to be in NYC.
You can rent just about any bike(mountain, hybrid, road, folding) you could think of.
Try different ones then decide, you can rent one day or one week.

CPFITNESS

i have a flat bar road bike giant rapid 3. a nice mix of all of the above. it's outfitted with 28c armadillos which actually measuer out on the wide side of things. only one flat since I made the change to them. bike weighs about 25lbs so much lighter than entry level mtn bike. it's got a road triple up front and 12-28 8speed casette in the back and was only $550. I added a kryptonite fuhgeddabout it lock and noose chain along with pinhead skewers so i simply lock my frame up wherever I'm going, i don't have to start pulling off wheels and seats and so forth.

If I were doing it again, I'd look for a vintage steel frame and just do a rebuild as a flatbar. flat bar shifters whether it be grip shifts or thumb shifters are very cheap vs. brifters and there is a noticeable difference in being able to swing my head around to see traffic on the flat bar vs riding the hoods on a road bike. I just rebuilt a road bike from almost the ground up and it can be done pretty inexpensively and modernized nicely