Originally Posted by kk778
... but a thought ocurred to me last night - would it be possible to convert my existing old fashioned racing bike ...
You can do it but it may not be comfortable or have the carrying capacity. My old road bike is currently my commuter but it just isn't working out.
It has no braze-ons for mounting a rack so I have a Delta seapost mounted rack with ~25# weight limit. The brakes are marginal and sometimes I wonder if I'll stop before hitting something or when approaching an intersection when the light changes to red. Because of the fork clearance I'm limited to 700x25 tires. I possibly could mount a 700x28 but not sure. I can't attach fenders so I have SKS RaceBlades. They attach with zip-ties. When the roads are wet the front fender keeps about 95% of the water off my legs
and feet. Because of the frame geometry (and maybe because it's aluminum) I feel every bump.
So I ordered a 2005 Jamis Nova cyclocross bike.
It is supposed to be here in a few weeks.
Here are pictures of my set-up if you're interested. The first two are from a few years ago. Pictures 3 and 4 were taken before the time change. I've added headlights and lots of reflective tape all over the bike.
picture 1
picture 2
picture 3
picture 4