A trial commute today. Picked up a 1987 Bianchi Strada 12 speed road bike for $35 at a yard sale last week. Had to get new tubes, otherwise everything seems to work. It's about 10 pounds lighter than my Norco Katmandu mtn bike. In the 12 km commute, the road bike trip was about 3 minutes shorter, so that means a 10% improvement. More fun too!! It took a while to get used to the drop bars, haven't ridden a bike with them for about 10 years. I was impressed with the road bike in the rough going (rutted pavement, rough pavement, a short piece of gravel bike trail) - I thought it would be too skitterish with the 1 1/4 skinnies, but had no problems today. The only problem was the steel grate lift bridge - I'll walk the bike over next time!!!