Pics of my new-to-me commuter bike, from craigslist. It looks pretty drab but rides so much better than the full-suspension Mongoose I had been riding. This is much faster, especially uphill. I bought it yesterday evening after work and rode it to work this morning after adding the underseat bag with a tube and lock and the front water bottle cage with a mini-pump clipped to the side.
It's a Raleigh USA MT 400, made in Seattle. The brakes, brake levers, shifters, and tires don't match each other, but both derailleurs are Shimano Deore LX. I imagine I'll change stuff over time - like having matching brake levers, especially. Do you guys have any favorites on the lower side of the price range? Right now one feels great (Shimano, looks like aluminum to me) but one feels cheap and flimsy (ProMax, looks like cheapest Chinese pot metal available).
Do either of the tires look backwards to you guys? They both do to me, but I confess I know little about bike tires.
Shopping list - brake levers...maybe I can buy one that matches the Shimano I like on craiglist, eBay, etc.?
Pedals - I don't like clips on pedals and while I could remove these, the pedals themselves are pretty mashed up. Is there sort of an inexpensive but durable favorite pedal among MTBers and commuters who wear regular shoes while riding?
Fenders, rear rack, and some kind of rack bag. Maybe a little stubby front rack too that mounts on the brake...uh...mounts? You guys know what I mean. There's a recent thread about them.
Grips. These are terrible. They are thicker at the outside and after my five mile commute this morning, it felt like all the pressure was on the bone between my pinky and wrist on each hand, instead of evenly distributed across my hands.
Saddle. It looks and feels like the stock seat on my Mongoose but I've been at my desk for about an hour now and I still feel like I'm on the bike. That didn't happen on the other bike. I guess it might be the lack of suspension, but otherwise I stand whenever going over bumps and such. I'll switch them out tonight and see how that works tomorrow.
