Well decided to hold off new bike purchase until I get some more seat time and figure out if I really want a road bike now. Going to setup my MTB as a commuter for now. Ordered the nashbar trekking bars and Ergon P1 grips to try and alleviate some of my hand numbness with the extra hand positions. Will start looking into a rear rack/fenders now, but want to check out what they have at the LBS. My bike is a 2000 Specialized Rockhopper Pro A1 with a good mix of Deore XT/LX components (26x1.5 slicks on stock Ritchey wheels). Might as well let this bike take the abuse of day to day commuting and its really not that long of a commute (14mi round trip, mostly flat). If my weekend rides keep getting longer then it will have solved my dillema and i'll pick up a road bike.

Can't wait to try the bike with the new bars/grips. They should be here before the weekend.

My commuting will start in a couple of weeks when the time changes and it doesn't get dark till later in the evening. That way my commute will be an all daylight commute for now. Hope to have a good lighting system in place by the time it changes again.