Hello My Fellow Bikers,

After an immense amount of recreational biking in the past few weeks, I decided to toss my ages old, too small, mountainbike, and step in to the realm of road bikes. I purchased for myself a Specialized Sirrus, and over the last 3 days, I have become increasingly happy with it. I even changed my first flat today, due to a tiny tiny piece of metal someone put inside the tire!

Anyway, now the only thing I want to do is pimp my bike. Unfortunately, I have a limited budget. I look through the bike shops, and I want one of everything, but I have to ask myself how practical it would be. I live in rainy rainy Washington, and plan on replacing my gas guzzler with my bike; meaning daily to school, errands, friends houses, and next year in college. Of course, I want a rack, as set of panniers, a set of Reelights, fenders, and a computer...

What are the essentials I should have? (have a spare, patch kit, pump...)
Is a rack/panniers that much better than a good backpack?
Will fenders save me in the rain?

Thank you,
Horsecat