I'm thinking of getting myself a second bike, and would appriciate some advice. First off, heres a picture of my current bike, it's a 2005 Orange Patriot, and been built ontop of my previous bike from pre-loved bits bought mainly from here over the last couple of years, so some of you may recognise parts from it! So a big thanks goes out to everybody who's sold me bits and offered me advice over the past 2 years 
I'm very pleased with it, and theres nothing on it I want to change (with the exception of a longer stem- I tend to lift the front of the bike now I have longer forks.
It's given me loads of confidence I've never had before when riding (I've came from a small, stiff aluminium DJ frame), I now ride much more than I used to, and have much more fun when I'm doing it! I have every confidence in the bike to make-up my short comings in skill, and it's not let me down yet (I ride into/ through things and come out the other side- no skill but fun!)!
However, I started building it when I was a little more burly than I am now (and I have the bike in no small part to thank for that!), and built the bike up to compliment that... However, now I have lost weight and I am much fitter than I used to be, I'm riding more and looking at options for a second bike- the Patriot isn't best-suited to road-riding or my commute to work!
I'm now after getting something to compliment the Patriot; something light and fairly racey, geared, and probably rigid. Based on this I've been looking at an on-one Scandal and similar offerings, paired with a carbon fork (although I'm not against steel if that people would recommend one instead), I'll probably be looking to buy a complete bike with most of the bits I want second hand, and then swapping and changing bits as and when I can afford them, to get the bike I want.
At the moment my biggest dilema is whether to go 26 or 29. I've already got a brand new set of 26" wheels, aswell as an assortment of tyres and tubes to go on, so I'd not really considered 29", but a colleague at work suggested I look into it more. I can see its benefits, especially on a fully rigid set-up.
As mentioned before, the bike will mainly be used for my commute into town (7 miles, down country roads and accross greenham common), on hardpack and graveled trails, and the occasional rooty bit between. It won't really be ridden in anger or over anything too technical- I've got the Patriot for that. I'm also occasionally doing road riding, and I'm looking into doing a charity London -> Paris ride next summer. I'm just really looking to get peoples opinions on which bike to get, do I stick with 26, or do I make the jump to 29? I'm just over 6', and weigh nearly 11st, so was looking at the 18" on-ones.
A colleage at work has a 29er in his collection of bikes, I was thinking of asking to borrow it for a weekend to see how I get on, but I believe that its single speed and the jump from geared to SS is probably bigger than the 2" difference in wheel size, so it may possibly not be all that helpful.
It's probably also worth mentioning that I don't want to spend too much, I don't really have a figure in my head, but I almost certainly won't be buying many bits new, I'd rather get a complete bike second hand (so I can ride it), and then replace bits over time.
I've got to sell a few bike bits to get the money together, which I'll do once I've finished my exams for the year, once they're sold I'll start looking.
Thanks for your help and suggestions!
Danny
