Originally Posted by banzai_f16
I've never used them, but from the pic, those fenders look next to worthless. They MAY protect you from the "turkey feather" back spray, but that's it.
As far as the other recommendations...you said you were looking for a commuter, or something more "in between." Therefore I picked some more casual geometry road bikes, ones that looked like they also had the appropriate mount points. I could have also recommended something that didn't look like an "old lady bike."
The Trek 1000 is also a good alternative.
That Portland just strikes me as...I don't know...gimmicky, I guess. I could very well be wrong.
Found out from another thread that the Trek 1000 was named Bicycling Mags 2006 Best Buy Something or Other. It's got 25c tires, but dunno if you can get anything bigger vs. a touring or CX bike (and fenders? who knows?)...but hey, it's only seven Benjies...