Originally Posted by tuolumne
Also, road bars allow more positions for your arms and back on a longer commute. Make sure the frame has holes in the fork and rear dropouts for fenders and a rack. These are a must for commuting. A bike with great components costs a lot less than a years worth of car insurance.
I'm not sure how much hand positions matter until you're up past an hour or so. And, if my mtn bike weighs a bit more than my other bike, it has lower gears too. So for my ~15 miles a day, I'm not sure I really see a performance difference (the 2 bikes have the same tires by the way, though 28mm on road-y, 1.5" on mtn). Maybe next year I will try that Seattle-to-Portland ride, try each bike for one day, see what the difference is after that kind of comparison.
I was wondering about turning my mtn bike into a tour-er, actually. Not sure what would be required beyond maybe a more comfy seat. That plus swapping out the suspension fork for a fixed one (I won my ebay auction, now to wait for the new fork!).
Commute-wise, the susp. fork is a pain exactly because it doesn't have eyelets for fenders, so my front fenders are tied on w/ copper wire. Strangely stable to this point (~8 months now).
I'm not sure if I'm playing devil's advocate on the road bike, or just having a moodswing 'cause mine is behaving like a less well-oiled machine right now, and the mtn bike has never been anything but bulletproof (though in only ~1/12 the total miles)