The definitive OTP ( Off-The-Peg ) List (<£500 and <£1,000 sections)

My mrs' company are just signing up to the ride2work scheme at evans (won't do cyclescheme unfortunately) and so we're limited to what Evans offer.

my plan was to build her up a Surly cross-check single speed so she'd have a really versitle frame that we could make geared and put treaded tyres on for a chicago winter later if she wanted, but that is out of the window now (unless Evans can order Surly stuff..?) so I need to find something that Evans sell that is capable of taking full mud guards, bigger tyres and a rack.

looking at the Evans website the dawes mono seems to tick a few boxes. does anyone have any idea if they are any good? The Felt Breed cyclocross bike also took my fancy, stick some slick tyres and a bigger chainring on there and it might be a winner (not sure if it has mounts for guards etc though), but the tyre clearance is good.

anyone got any suggestions of a bike that could do what i wanted the Surly to, but that she could get from Evans? She 'does'nt do' gears, so it would need to have the ability to run SS.

Thanks.

Late reply but have thought about the tricross? does all of the above
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/tricross-2009-single-speed-cyclo-cross-bike-ec016875

If your after real steel, the Gary fisher looks nice. Wont take big nobbly tyres though.
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/gary-fisher/triton-2009-single-speed-road-bike-ec017199