Chums

Further to a previous post about upgrading from my initial cheap intro
to cycling with a sub £100 'mountain bike' (this a deliberate
decision), I'm popping into townat the weekend to do a bit of window
shopping - there are four cycle shops in Colchester :-)

I'm clear that what I want is to

- go faster on the country roads in north Essex (a few occasional
uphill bits, but its probably as flat as anywhere in England) and
never want to go off road on it

- no need for mudguards, panniers or any of that palaver

-but-

I'm not too sure about assuming a bent over body position on the drop
handlebars for long periods. (In my 40s and never had a racer before).

A 'fitness bike' as described on CTC seems to be the thing I should be
looking at - a sort of racer with straight handlebars, or a 'lite'
hybrid

http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3793

It's alll very confusing!

So what kind of bike should I be looking at? What shoulds I be looking
at in terms of

- type of bike
- type of gears?
- 2 or 3 front chainrings?
- very narrow wheels?
- dropped handlebars a must?


M