Commuting - I want a fancy commuter too...

I saw a specialized allez parked next to me today and I was wondering, man I wish I could take my roadie out to commute with. Anyone else commute with a nice road bike and park it outside?

I commute with a mercier corvus. Don't know if that is classified as a nice roadbike or not but it has 105 components and a nice carbon fork. One thing that it does have that "nice" roadbikes normally do not is rack dropouts on the back which makes it perfect for me. I have put 7000 commuting miles on it since I bought it last year. I figure I spend most of my miles commuting, why not use my best bike and make it more enjoyable? (I do have a tarp that I throw over it on rainy days).

I've been thinking the same way lately. My old Giant Farrago is starting to give me the willies - it desperately needs a new rear wheel, and could do with a new chain, brake pads, cables, headset and grips. Every time I think about doing any of that, I think about how much more sensible it could be to put that money towards a road/cyclocross/touring bike that would make my commute faster and more enjoyable, and turn the Giant into a singlespeed or 1x7 errand bike. My bike commuting miles are at least equaling my recreational miles these days, so as Paul L. says it may as well be a good bike to ride! The bike seems pretty safe down here, locked up in a secure garage or some spare office space downstairs, so I'm not too worried about it being stolen.

Just got a big refund check thanks to a superannuation treaty between Australia and the US – all my social security and medicare tax paid since October 2002 has been given back to me. So I think it might be time to bite the bullet… :D

I've posted about my bike before, but anyway, I think of my Trek 1500 as a "nice" roadbike. I commute with it twice a week because that's how often I'm working. I do not leave it outside, when I'm at work, and usually only if I take it to Wal-mart, or soccer, etc., but the crime rate here is pretty low anyway. Of course I still use Kryptonite locks on it.

I saw a specialized allez parked next to me today and I was wondering, man I wish I could take my roadie out to commute with. Anyone else commute with a nice road bike and park it outside?
Then why not just take the roadie out? just curious? Is theft a problem in your parts? I ride a scwhinn junker fixie to work and leave it out side under my window unlocked. Then again I don't lock my car or my house either and never had anything stolen...

Then why not just take the roadie out? just curious? Is theft a problem in your parts? I ride a scwhinn junker fixie to work and leave it out side under my window unlocked. Then again I don't lock my car or my house either and never had anything stolen...

Kryptonite named their strongest series of locks after my city, heh, you bet theft is a serious problem.

I saw a specialized allez parked next to me today and I was wondering, man I wish I could take my roadie out to commute with. Anyone else commute with a nice road bike and park it outside?

I commute on a specialized allez sport, and I just started leaving it outside (my lab recently moved). There is not a large crime problem up here, but I do have a couple of recent rack scratches that have me thinking about wrapping some of the tubes.

I ride my Paramount or Stumpjumper to class at the present since I don't have a commuter right now... typically though I do commute to work on my Paramount since its a 7mi ride and the roadbike is much faster and more comfortable. For going to class, normally I just a 34:18 singlespeed mountain bike since I am only going about a mile and dodging peds around campus, but thats outta commission so the Stumphumper and Paramount fill the role... no big problems as of yet...

Madison has one of the lowest general crime rates in the country, but bike theft is high here. Most of that is theft of opportunity, though; the hayseed students forget that they're now living in "the big city" (which, as an ex-Detroiter, is still a "cow-town" to me), and leave them unsecured, or poorly secured. So a good Kryptonite lock is sufficient here. Just don't leave your bike parked in the same place for too long; somebody will think it's abandoned and vandalize it just for the jollies. And don't park near a student tavern after bar-time, for the same reason.

I rent a bike locker (THREE YEAR waiting list) where I work, so it's safe for my roadie (late '90s Cannondale R500). Before that I parked at a rack on a covered deck (former loading dock) behind a building across the street. Technically it's "outside", but it's directly adjacent to the Credit Union, so it's pretty secure. I even left "loose" things like the computer head and headlight attached.

A couple I know down the street have nice roadies (forget what, exactly), and they wrap the frames in old innertubes both to protect and to disguise them. Nice idea, but it adds a lot of weight.