Commuting - Looking to get started

I am interested in purchasing a bike for general road riding recreation as well as a few days a week commuter. I am 6ft 180 lbs and am looking for any suggestions people may have. I would rather lean towards a heavier stronger bike than a lighter faster as I also have aspirations of bike touring. Any suggestions? thoughts?

You havn't said anything about a price range, but have you looked into recumbents?
http://www.bentrideronline.com/
http://www.recumbentcyclistnews.com/
And there is a recumbent forum here. I have a LWB (see my Avatar) and hope to work up to commuting. I need to lose about 125 Lbs first! I am 300 lbs, and mine holds me just fine. I find I can ride longer and further than I could on my old ATB :p with much, MUCH less discomfort. And they are great for Touring.
Just my 2 cents worth.
:)

Touring bikes make excellent commuting machines and I dont think there is anything better. They are strong, light, efficient and can take commuting equipment such as rack, fenders etc.
The Trek 520 is an excellent frame. The gearing is fine for commuting and faster day rides, a bit high for fully loaded expedion touring.
Canondale is esp good for larger riders.
Bruce Gordon BLT is an excellent expedition ready bike with superb luggage racks.
Jamis and Bianchi make more sporty cyclo-cross /tourers, and you can also get light-touring bikes, racing weight but with more clearance for tyres and fenders.

I am about your size and preferred a stonger bike so I went with the Bruce Gordon Basic Loaded Tourer (BLT) . I am quite hard on frames and haven't hurt the BLT yet. Also I live near Gordons' shop and we get along well enough. You can get a basic touring bike for $800-$1000 (REI). You might start low and work up as you can drop a fair bit of change over time on additional gear. Like $50-300 for racks, $25-200 fenders, $15-1400 lights, $35-200 helmet, $25-300 fould weather gear, etc, etc. Start with www.bgcycles.com and go from there. support you LBS (local bike shop)

Bianchi has been making some great utilitarian-type bikes lately that fit your description - not very light, but built to be strong and durable and versatile. Check out the Volpe and the Castro Valley.

I would also look at the Surly Cross-Check. It's marketed as a Cyclocross racing bike, but it's actually a good touring and commuting machine with clearance for wide tires and fenders and eyelets for racks.

These bikes cost around 800 dollars, which is a pretty good deal.

surly crosscheck.

damn fine machine!

Lots of people have Surly Long Haul Truckers for touring/commuting combos. It's a damn solid and comfortable ride, by all accounts. It's a custom job though, you talk to a bike shop and they get parts and build you a bike. But I think you can have it done for about what a stock bike costs, and have a pretty sweet ride.

The Trek 520 is generally stated to be in this type also, but when I looked at it at my LBS, it seemed like it might not be well suited to mounting wider, studded tires and still be able to mount fenders. In fact the clearance for fenders seemed pretty darn minimal even with standard tires.

REI has some nice touring bikes that would serve well as commuters. If you keep an eye out, they have clearance deals, specials, and member discounts, I've seen people getting their $1000 bike for as little as < $600 new.

Old ten speed for starters ....

Hello all,

Thank you for replying. I ended up buying a 2005 Cannondale T2000 and after a full spring of commuting took it on a 2400 mile tour this Summer. The bike has worked out great with the only problem being a water logged ground up bottom end in Port Townsend Wa after many days in the rain. The bike is stiff, geared well and realiable after ~ 6000 miles.

Scott

I'll second the Cannondale vote. I'm on a T-700, the predicessor to the current T-800 model. Big, chunky, aluminum frame. I have mounted fenders on it, and currently running Nokian 106 studs so I know you can go as large as 700/35 on the tires.

Ultra reliable with regular maintenance, and can haul a fully loaded touring set up with no issues. In fact it rides better with
70lbs of gear hanging off of it.

I found mine used on craigslist.com for $400. It was several years old, but still had the molding flash down the center of the tire... they said it had 30 miles on it :-) Not a speed demon, but more like the SUV of bicycles.

Shop around... if you aren't comfortable sizing a bike without riding it first, you should buy from a bike store to get proper fit. That's more important than one might think.

Guess I should have looked at the dates...

Who keeps digging up these ancient threads ???

[Ken ???] :)

You responded to a very old thread, the original poster already bought his bike 3 years ago lol

so did you :)

Die thread die !

Guess I should have looked at the dates...

Who keeps digging up these ancient threads ???

Well, take a look at the first modern poster. That name repeats a lot in these situations. Someone must be very bored at work.