Originally Posted by
jamisonjamison
i live in nyc, perhaps that makes my commute irrelevant, but if i ride my 7 mile commute on a fixie, mountain bike, or road my commute is about 25 min give or take a min or two. equipment makes little difference. I would be willing to bet equipment makes little difference on longer commutes as well. if you want to race, they have things called races.
Put a set of studded tires on one of your bikes and then see if you still think equipment makes little difference.
I know what you mean though. My experiments with different tires showed that a good stiff head wind is often a bigger factor. Nevertheless there are lots of things that can make my commute significantly faster or slower. Simply choosing to take the street for the first 1/4 of my trip home can save me a couple of minutes over choosing the MUP that runs parallel to it. Why? I can only go so fast on the MUP. On the narrow street, I feel compelled to keep pace with traffic.