I am kind of with Bandit in not having things on my back. I carry my Blowfish camelback when I need to bring a lot of stuff to work and I hate it. My back gets super sweaty and we do not have showers here at our office (I can only dream). That is the main reason for putting stuff on the back of the bike.

Plus three days a week I extend my route and extra 45 miles and would never want to do that ride with stuff on my back.

I have a lock at home that I still have not opened yet. I have been commuting for 8 months now and have had no use for it. Detours into stores are accompanied by my bike at my side (especially when I was riding my Zaskar worth 3 times my Nova). At the office we a have locked storage room that only certain people have access to (and barely anyone knows where it is).

I definitely need some new tires. The ones that came on the bike are super soft and I already got a flat from running over a head of a nail (I think). Armadillos with some liners seems to be a good choice other suggestions welcome for commuting through an industrial area (flats happen within 1 mile from work).

Oh, about the light, I have a Lights and Motion ARC light for my commuting. So no worries there at all.

Those brakes seem to like to squell. I fixed mine last night, but still a bit of noise coming from them. I have an extra set of Avid 7 digit V-brakes I was thinking of throwing on there. Why do they have cantilever brakes and not vbrakes?