Originally Posted by
iltb-2
I agree with thdave, but obviously "we" don't see things the same way those "other guys" (who never have seen the "roadie bent"/arrogance on this list.)
BTW, I look at all the pictures of dropped handlebar road bikes (as well as some other type of trendy bikes) displayed on this list and it tells me how unrepresentative the BF posters are of the commuting population; they look like the last things I ever saw many commuters use in Philadelphia, Chicago or Germany (exception being on weekends.) Of course I am aware of College students and low income workers, and am not focused only on those who are suburban based club cyclists and their friends.
Do you mean that any bike with drop bars is a "road bike"? If so, how would you categorise John Tomacs world cup drop bar MTB?
Also, not having done a count, there appear to be more pictures of other types of bikes in the pictures thread than, by your definition, just "road bikes". I ride a cyclocross bike which is, by nature, an off road beast - that it happens to have 29" (which are 622 etrto which are 700c) wheels and drop bars hardly makes it a "road bike".
It's a versatile bike, i.e., one size fits almost all possible situations and conditions I'm likely to meet in London while cyclocrossing, off roading, commuting, road riding, touring, racing, training, etc. That's what makes it so great.
Why not take a camera out and and use the pictures to start a thread on "commuter bikes" actually being used on a street near me? Then we can judge for ourselves if there is an "average commuter bike".