Originally Posted by
AusTexMurf
Agreed....
I have many different bikes and commute on any of them. I prefer the variety and the quiet green spaces provided by trails when available in the areas I am riding. I use our creeks, parks, greenbelts, dirt trails, shortcuts, decomposed granite trails, etc, whenever possible. Great way to cross under highways and busy arterials as well. And sometimes, I just use the streets and enjoy cutting through the clogged auto traffic at good speed on my bike.
Also, I prefer racks on all of my bikes. Allows me to use any combo of backpack, trunk bag, or up to 4 panniers on four of my bikes. Great for grocery shopping, bike camping, touring, etc. I usually only keep fenders on one bike setup for touring and nearly all conditions. It too is an older Trek steel mountain bike from the 90's but rebuilt with modern drivetrain, tubus racks, handbuilt wheels, sks fenders, brooks saddle, etc.
I too prefer racks. The two bikes above have racks. The Dean had them added after I bought the frame. I live near the Dean shop and adding them to the frame was trivial. It took about 2 weeks because I decided to do it during their busy season and cost about $40 per insert or about $120 total for 4 braze-ons. On the Moots, I’ve used Tubus rack adapters on the top and bottom. They are much stronger than normal p-clamps and easier to use. Here’s what they look like
image by
Stuart Black, on Flickr
I may take the bike up to Dean to have them add braze-ons but I will wait until December.