Originally Posted by
Shadoninja
1) Are you planning to do any other riding in addition to commuting?
Mountain biking is something I am very interested in, but will getting a nice mountain bike make it unsuitable as a 15 mile-a-week commuter?
15 miles a week is a very short commute. You can do it on pretty much any bike. I would recommend getting a bike that would be most suitable for mountain biking, or whatever other type of riding you want to do recreationally, and whatever you get will be just fine for the quick little 1.5 mile jaunt to and from work every day.
Let's assume there is indoor parking. I don't know this for sure, but my office is really nice and has a bike pool for people who want to ride into downtown for lunch (haven't seen this area yet).
That's great. This way you can ride a nice bike to work and not worry about leaving it locked up outside all day. The lunch ride sounds great too.
I am open to riding in any weather, but if that limits me I will make this answer a "no." I like riding my bike in the rain as long as my hands are freezing. I may be weird, but it is fun battling the elements sometimes!
That certainly isn't "weird" on this forum! We (some/many of us) love the weather. The crazier the better! Bragging rights!!!
I didn't plan on "gearing up" for this ride. Am I a misfit for the commuter section of this forum?
No, not a misfit at all. A commute that length doesn't warrant "gearing up". You can ride it in your ordinary work clothes.
I do like mountain biking. So you are suggesting buy a bike for the trails and double it as a commute bike 5x a week? will 15 miles of road riding every week wear out a set of trail tires?
I wouldn't be concerned about it. Tires may wear off slightly faster on pavement, but tires are consumables anyway: they will wear out and need replacement from time to time, and they're not that expensive. And unless you're riding very technical trails, less aggressive knobs might be a good trail/pavement compromise.
I am very on-board with buying a mid-grade bike right off the bat. Used is fine, but I have a sack of garbage already (not saying your link is to a bad one, but I have a bigger budget than that).
Used will give you a better bang for the buck if you know what you're looking for.
New will provide the satisfaction of buying a shiny new toy, and help establish a relationship with a bike shop (free tune-ups and accessory discounts are typically included in a new bike purchase).
Either way, be prepared for the possibility that you won't quite buy the right bike for your needs, because you don't even know what the needs are yet. They'll evolve as you get more into cycling. Your first bike is rarely the perfect match -- but it teaches lots of valuable lessons. So, don't obssess over it too much: buy and enjoy.
If biking becomes a passion, you'll know what you'll want in your next bike a few years down the road.
I don't think I will be changing upon arrival (based on some of the people's responses so far).
I wouldn't bother. Riding 1.5 miles is not any more challenging than walking that distance (less so, if anything), and no one changes upon arrival by foot. The whole "gearing up" concept is largely a North American cycling phenomenon: in part due to marketing and in part because North American distances are quite long, and people who cycle here go distances that are uncommon in other cycling-heavy countries like, say, the Netherlands.