Originally Posted by
Dwayne
Funny, I actually disagree with everything except your points about the suspension and knobby tires.
Weight - Add a rack, panniers/bag, lock, lights, fenders, etc to a bike, and the original weight of the bike isn't a big deal anymore.
Tires - There is little time difference between my road bike (700x23), MTB with 1.25" slicks, and MTB with 2.15" Schwalbe Big Apple slicks. For my every day 35 mile round trip commute, you can pry my Big Apples from my cold, dead hands. They feel a bit heavier when accelerating from a stop, but that's about it. The comfort advantage of getting to run them at 30psi and having them absorb crappy road surfaces is well worth it. Agree on getting rid of knobby tires though, slicks are the way to go.
Lighter wheels - No thanks, I'll take durable over lightweight. My road and tri bikes have light wheels, but they also don't need to go up and down curbs, hit potholes, and do whatever else I need on my commute.
Disc brakes - Not that much heavier than conventional brakes, and superior performance when it's wet or snowy out. I'd opt for a nice set of cable-actuated discs over hydraulic ones though, for ease of maintenance.
Drop bars - Personal preference. I have plenty of hand positions on my flat MTB bar with stubby bar ends. Ergon grips help here.
Overbuilt MTB frame - Overbuilt = durable. Q-factor? Again, why bother talking aerodynamics on a commuter, any gain you get from a narrower Q-factor goes right out the window once you start adding commuting bits like racks and fenders.
My turn to disagree with nearly everything you've said.
Weight: Mountain bikes...even the lightest ones...are overbuilt. You can start with a lightweight one and add a rack, bags, lights and fenders (only when you need them) and still keep the weight of the bike down to a reasonable level. You don't need to carry as much stuff as many people think you have to. Leave some of the stuff at work and carry only what you need to dress for work.
Lighter wheels: There is no correlation between a lightweight wheelset and durability...at least in mountain bikes. I run Mavic XC717 rims with DT Alpine III spokes and XTR hubs. These are my off-road wheels and I jump them. They are extremely lightweight
and durable and, since they are capable of handling off-road conditions, they'll handle anything a street has to offer.
Tires: It depends on what you want to do. Slicks and snow? Not a great combination. Slicks and ice? A really bad combination. Having knobbies opens up the world to make commuting less of a chore and more of a joy.
Disc brakes: I wouldn't call their performance 'superior'. Marginally better in rain and snow but not superior. (Yes, I have disc equipped bikes.) In rain and snow, you are limited not by the braking power but by the grip on the ground. It doesn't improve over dry pavement so having brakes that stop the wheel 'better' doesn't have much effect when stopping the wheel probably isn't a good idea. I've ridden snow, ice and rain with both types of brakes and never found that rim brakes were all that bad. You just have to adjust to the conditions but you have to adjust to the conditions even with discs.