Originally Posted by chipcom

A "commuting bike" is any bike that serves your commuting needs best. I commute on 3-4 different bikes, depending upon which one suits the conditions, my needs and even my mood on any given day. Some days that is the Big Dummy. If your commuting bike works better for you on your commute, great, but that only means that your commuting bike is "better" for commuting than a BD for you and your commute...not anyone else's.

The same goes for touring or just about any other application...what works best for you may not be what works best for someone else.

One of my favorite rec touring applications for my BD are the 1-3 day jaunts where Cheri rides one of her road bikes and I get to haul my stuff, her stuff plus all the stuff she picks up shopping while we are out. Doing that either with a trailer or just my touring bike would suck...based on my actual experience doing so using both.