Originally Posted by
asforme
This is something I've been wondering about, except the other way around. In my mind what makes a bike a commuter is that it has a rack and fenders and slightly wider tires. So my question is would such a bike be acceptable to bring to group rides or do centuries? Currently I only have a mountain bike, but I want to get a road bike, actually probably a touring or cyclocross bike for added durability, and equip it for commuting. But if I want to go on group rides do I really need to start thinking about n+2 right now? Or should I take the rack and fenders off and switch to skinnier tires for road riding? Or should I just leave them on and show up for group rides as is?
Does anyone else ride group rides with their commuting bike?
There are different types and levels of group rides. On some, there's no way I'd show up with any extra weight on my bike at all, if only for psychological reasons. The one I tend to go on however, is fast but targeted at a wider audience. My 3 season commuter is a road bike with 23 mm tires. In periods of rainy weather I'll put fenders on it and I had a rack on it for part of this summer. I did the group rides with the rack. I'd leave the panniers behind the counter at the shop that the ride starts from.
Though people show up with a variety of bikes, most of the regulars ride bikes of the carbon variety and I'm the only regular that ever showed up with a rack that I can remember. No one cares though. There's another regular who commutes on his bike. I believe it's titanium and he's usually one of the first guys up this nasty hill.
I have a set of tires and wheels I use for competing. I haven't done much competition this summer and have been commuting on them more than I'd like but I finally ordered a new cassette so now I can easily swap my "racing" and everyday wheels.