I was waiting to get things tweaked on my new commuter before posting here. I'm now a two-bike commuter, and this is my regular ride:



1997-98 (not sure) Giant Kronos with 700x25 tires and STI shifters. A big change from my MTB of unknown origin with grip shifters and 26x1.95 semi-slicks. It originally came with a rear rack but I couldn't find a single pannier that fit without a significant amount of heel strike and I'm not going to pony up more than half the cost of the bike for a rack that sits back further. I never thought I'd be one of those opting for a messenger bag, but you do what you've gotta do. I'll probably be DIYing it, as I can't justify the cost of some of the nicer messenger bags at this point.

I also removed the toe clips. The pedals came with metal toe clips which truthfully just felt unsafe. I gave it quite a while, but I was never able to get it down in one fluid motion and almost always wound up looking down to get my right foot in - not safe when pedaling a left turn into traffic. One of these days I may upgrade to clipless pedals, but for now these suffice when its dry. When its wet I have to consciously flip them over because the "grippy" side always winds up down.

Anyways, there she is. She's got some battle scars but otherwise looks like she's going to be a reliable commuter for nearly all weather (I've already had her through torrential downpours and storms and it handled just fine save for the one wipe out where I learned wood gets very slippery when wet).