I used to bike .. a lot. Through high school and college, I used to love to hit my road bike and lay down 100 mile rides. Then I joined the real world, with an extremely demanding job, and my bikes sat collecting dust.
I have now moved to the west coast, where commuting to work on bike is a no brainer. My commute is pretty short, only about 3 -flat- miles each way. I'm looking to buy a bicycle that meets the below requirements.
-Requires very little maintenance
-Is very reliable
-Can be ridden rain or shine
-Won't feel terrible about leaving it locked up outside all day while at work
-Relatively inexpensive
I would appreciate any and all help you can give me. I haven't ridden seriously for about 10 years now, and my last bike was a Trek 5500.