First let me say this is my first post and that this site and its members have consistently provided the best information on the web. Everyone here, your the best!

I have a dilemma,

I will be commuting to school 8 miles through unfriendly bike territory; New Britain CT from Plainville.


As of right now my current choices are my MTB with slicks that will cost around 35 each or a road bike from my local bike shop somewhere near 100-150$. Cyclocross is out of the question Im saving for my camera and laptop(photo student). This goes for hybrids and road hybrids too.

I have mapped out the route and I cant be sure I will be on the road 100% of the time, sidewalks are def my friend here. I have been leaning toward my mtb with slicks but I just cant shake the feeling that for a little bit more I can get a whole 2nd bike. Also I have heard ppl say anything under 10 miles you can make do with a mtb as your commuter.

I stumbled on this today a little bit more than I want to spend but looks headache free.

http://hartford.craigslist.org/bik/2486515028.html

others I have been considering:
SCHWINN LE TOUR for 85$
A Lotus super for 150$(decided he wanted to much)
An Elvish 10 speed for 90$


Im a research junkie when I want to be and basically it has come down to this. The road bike will be much more delicate and ill have to adjust my ride accordingly. Now I dont care about the 5 min ill save vs my mtb but I care about the amount of effort ill put into the ride. This is where the dilemma comes in, I know the mtb will require more effort but does the that outweight the pro's? Which are the mtb can take a beating, I can cross the street when the traffic eases up right off a curb and hop right up the other one and do it fast, the handle bars offer a better heads up attention and the fact that all I have to buy is the tires and maybe the wheels.

You can tell by this post so far that I want to go with the mtb, but that devil on my shoulder keeps telling me that a road bike is a new bike to learn to master and ill enjoy it on other occasions besides commuting. Also I am aware that getting parts for any older bike is not always easy so I have kept that in mind.

OR!!

Save a little at a time to get a cyclocross bike because really thats exactly what I need but I have nowhere the money to make it happen but I do know thats the right choice.

fyi the camera will be anywhere from 600-1000.(Nikon D7000 is just over 1k)


So it comes down to buying some tires for the mtb (cheapest)
getting a roadie and have a 2nd bike to enjoy(effort vs cost savings)
saving eventually for a cyclocross(which will mean getting the slicks for the mtb)


Ive tried to piece all this info together from 100 different posts and only got half the way there, so I had to bite the bullet and register. And I dont want to hear "whatever you feel is the better ride" if i knew that I wouldnt be here. Or "go with what feels best to you" and anything near that. I dont want to come off like an ass though but I know no other way to say it. No hard feelings?


Thanks in advance for listening to this newbie.

p.s. I know the best advice comes from experience and on a road bike I have zero.