Having tried my 456 is various guises for my commute (geared, SS, 69er SS) I always fall back to my Explosif SS, so the 456 has gone. Time to replace it with something better suited to the job in hand.
My daily commute is about 10 miles, mainly on London’s tow paths (pretty good surfaces, pretty rude pedestrians). The Explosif is good for really bad weather (snow and the like), but I fancy something better suited to reasonable surfaces … but also capable of turning to a bit of mild doubletrack or Epping Forest singletrack in summer.
I was eyeing up a Genesis Day One Alfine 11 (low maintenance for the commuting) … then I got distracted by the Singular Peregrine (the Gryphon may be a brilliant tool for the job but it looks hideous to my eyes) … then I thought that maybe a 29er would give more flexibility and the Singular Swift looks drop dead gorgeous … then I drooled over the Pace RC129. But proper offroad I can do on my MTBs so maybe I should stick to a CX bike or similar.
Now completely undecided, so time to ask for recommendations.