Originally Posted by michaelnel
Whoa! Care to elaborate? Maybe I need to be carrying more stuff!

Cheap hardtail mountain bike with suspension forks. Uses fairly heavy (therefore cheap) components. I built a 20 watt light system that includes a 7.2 Ah sealed lead-acid battery which is also quite heavy because I needed 5 hours a day of light due to my long commute being over 60 miles round trip all in darkness during winter. has a Topeak beam rack & trunk bag with a bunch of spares including 3 inner tubes. 2 water bottles, lunch, change of clothes. So my commute is more like touring than commuting