Originally Posted by
cooker
I go back and forth on this.
I think some new posters/wannabe commuters are quite nervous about getting back into cycling and want to get the "right bike" to make it go smoothly.
As for those like some of you, who just dive in, for every one like you who got lucky with a random garage sale find, or your high school mountain bike, and found it comfortable and fun, and kept it up, there are probably just as many who tried to commute on a poorly chosen, badly fitting, unreliable bike, didn't like it, and give up. That's a shame.
So if they ask, and are planning to buy a new bike, I think it is good that we give them good advice.
Half the time they ignore it anyway
To me the nervous ones are the least well served by the large volume of often conflicting advice they're likely to get. If their current bike came from a shop then it likely fits as long as they were an adult (or older teen) when they bought it. It doesn't matter if it was 20 years ago. A tune up and maybe some tires should be all that's needed.
If they're trying to commute 30 miles each way on an old MTB with knobbies and a suspension fork, then there may be reason for concern but usually that's not the case.