Originally posted by surreal
-my bike is a mtn bike; a specialized hardrock. i bought it at the beginning of february. it's wierd; ive had some mechanicial stuff go down with the bike =P but it's pretty cool, in general. i just hope the guys at the shop manage to fix these "teething" problems.
-speaking of hauling more stuff: i wanna get some panniers. anyone have any recomendations? i have found cool stuff at www.inertiadesigns.com; i'm looking at the "expedition" bags. any thoughts/feedback, anyone?
anyone got good advice on a nice headlight/set of headlights?
Others have mentioned getting slick, higher-pressure tires for road riding. Good advice. I know people who actually own two complete sets of wheels, one with slicks and one with knobbies, and the one with slicks with higher, closer-spaced gears for road-riding.
With a mountain bike you want to make sure that whatever panniers you buy aren't so big that your heels hit them. This is partly a function of your rack; some racks (Tubus, Jandd) are designed to offset the pannier mounting backwards. And this company --
http://www.oldmanmountain.com -- makes front and rear racks for mountain bikes, including those with suspension.
If you plan to ride after dark (hard for a commuter to avoid) don't mess around with anything less than a ni-cad based lighting system with a smart charger, although a lead-acid system can be OK as long as the charger won't overcharge the battery and you don't mind the extra battery weight. I've have good luck with both Performance and NiteRider systems.
Some people believe low-power (3-5W) lights are plenty as long as the beam is well-focused. Personally I say the brighter the better, and it's hard to beat the combination of a spot (to reveal road hazards) and a flood (to illuminate off-axis things like pedestrians, as well as to help in dark turns). I also like dual-lamp systems because of the redundancy.
RichC