Originally Posted by
corrado33
If you want to find out how much weight makes a difference, take a look at bike calculator.
Bike Calculator
Hint, it's not that much unless you're doing multiple hour rides very quickly.
But thank you for this thread. I was debating buying a cross check as a commuter. Considering the overwhelming positive attitude toward Surlys here, I think I'll go with it.
That calculator confirmed what my bike computers, and my buttometer tells me, that the difference between my road bike and Dutch bike isn't that much for how I ride.
For the same amount of effort on my 16.8 mile round trip, there's a difference of approximately 3 minutes between the 2. So in reality, the greater convenience and significantly less maintenance of the Dutch bike means I dedicate less overall time and effort to commuting with it. That said, I still enjoy fair weather commuting on my road bike too, so it's not a big deal.
When you get down to it, personal preference is far more important then anything more quantifiable, and will always call for some compromises.