Comments on these 2 Trek commuter bikes?

[warp9]

Hi all.
I'm retiring my 20 year old, fixed frame, Diamond Back MTB for something a bit more up to date. At the moment my route is anywhere from 4 miles (if I battle with the traffic on A roads) to 8 miles on the canal (which I generally much prefer to do) and would like to push it a bit higher for fitness purposes. Most of what I do will be urban road and tow path, nothing more demanding. The two options:

http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/gary_fisher_c...
A good general commuter and I enjoyed the ride and feel.

http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/urban/soho/so...
A bit of a wild card. A smooth ride and I got on OK with the gears. I like the low maintenance side of things and it's a bit unusual.

Any thoughts on these 2?

BTW, I also have a bonefide query about improving my top speed, but I'm only managing to cruise at 12mph. I'll save that for now.

Cheers

[Mr Will]

warp9 said:

http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/urban/soho/so...
A bit of a wild card. A smooth ride and I got on OK with the gears. I like the low maintenance side of things and it's a bit unusual.

Much prefer this one, you don't need knobbly tyres, disc brakes and suspension for tow paths but the mudguards, hub gears and more relaxed riding position will all be assets.

The only time I'd say go for the other would be if you wanted to do more serious off-roading some of the time, but if that was the case I'd say get a proper hardtail rather than a half-commuter one.