I ride a 3 mile commute on an old road bike very similar to that centurion.

My bike is probably older, and is a 10 speed. I can hit 23mph according to runkeeper, and I average just under 4 minute miles, with stopping for cross walks included in that. I get to work in 11 minutes door to door usually, when I used to drive to work, it took me longer sometimes! I didn't ride a bike for about 11 years before 3 months ago, when I got my mountain bike to play with on trails in the canyons off PCH in socal on the weekends, so I'm by far not the strongest rider in the world.

A short commute like 3 miles really doesn't take a special bike, I rode my 40lb mountain bike for a couple weeks before getting the road bike, all I notice is I have to work less to go fast, mainly from the tire difference.


For me, the cost to drive to work was roughly $100/month just counting gas. My car gets mid 20's mpg on the highway, but on the short commute it never actually warmed up to get out of the 'dumping gas to warm the motor up' mode (open loop), and was actually returning closer to 16mpg, but even at that it was not huge money to drive to work.

So for me, I did NOT want to spend a lot of money that would take several months to pay for itself on a bike just to ride to work as a replacement for driving. Most others will not look at it this way, and I understand that.

I found my bike at the LBS, and it was a trade-in, my LBS offers customers $50-$100 trade in discount for buying new bikes. I walked out with my bike, 2 new tubes, and a new take-off giant seat, for $91 with tax. As I'm very tall (6'5", this 68cm road bike was about $2000 cheaper than a new bike that actually fit me.