Looking for a hybrid bike to turn into a commuter, and I keep running into these 1980s-1990s Bianchi mountain bikes: Nyala, Ocelot, Lynx, etc. I was wondering if anyone had experience with changing out the tires and using them as commuters? They look like durable, reasonably light frames. Is that the case? And is it possible to add a frame mounted rear rack and fenders to these?
Here's an example of what I'm looking at, a 94 Ocelot:
http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/bik/2616650161.html
One last related thought. I have a buddy with an old road bike frame that he wants to build into a hybrid for me. The thing is, I'm really more comfortable with riser bars than drop bars and I'm expecting to carry a decent amount of stuff on this bike (grocceries, lunch, work stuff, etc.) Would a chromyl steel road bike frame work for the type of city commuting I'm thinking of? Or am I better off sticking with a hardtail mountain bike like the Bianchis I'm looking at?