Nice bike!

This thread makes me jealous. I'm essentially tethered to my 75 lb cargo bike since I commute the kids in to school with it. I guess I could come back to the house and switch off to a more "fun" bike, but that seems like a huge pain since the last stop is about a mile and a half from the house and would add about 20 minutes to my day after biking back, parking the one, and getting set on the other.

Would be nice to be able vary the ride based on the weather forecast. :|

Anyway, great bikes, all!

But you can't put them on if you don't have them with you. ;)

Commuting in my work clothes I need to stay fairly clean and dry, not working set hours means I can't plan to not need lights ahead of time, and it works best for me to carry my lunch and beverages in a cooler, therefore fenders, lights and rack.

Recreationally, my rides most often include running errands, stopping at the thrift store, yard sales, ect. I still prefer to stay clean and dry, may not get home before dark, and need a way to carry acquisitions. My path racer is my only bare bones bike, and I only ride it when I know for sure it will be a short, quick ride with no stops. It does have dyno lights as I prefer to have lights, and already had them on hand.
It simply works better for me to fit my bikes to how I ride, than to fit how I ride to my bikes.

BTW, still trying to figure out how you can drive without being responsible for some pollution. Even EVs use energy, their pollution just is NIMBY.

Yeah, I mean, hell, I'm vegetarian bike commuter and I'm still responsible for pollution when I ride. My calories have to come from somewhere and, at some point, energy was expended to grow what I eat.

I use PGE GreenSource exclusively to charge the car. Every kwh I use is offset into the grid using renewable energy (that would not otherwise be used).

https://www.portlandgeneral.com/resi...en_source.aspx

Production and maintenance of power generation equipment and the car have a life-cycle pollution component. Nevertheless, since the car is used and my impact on existing infrastructure demand is infinitesimally small I'm not that concerned about it.

I think the LeMond would be more like the "rest of us" non typical commuters.

BTW, I saw my Klein Attitude Race Twin in the back of the first picture (blue bike). That is a great bike for commuting. I have about 4 bikes I commute on, but the Steel race bike is my goto bike - Fast, smooth, and durable.

Very true. Some day I will sit down and attempt to estimate how much GHG the average bike ride generates versus my leaf using a LCA. Since I eat a "vegan" diet I'm pretty sure that for me biking will always have less impact. This car is a compromise because there were arguments about the occasional use of her prius. (She: I'm tired and it's raining and I don't want to ride. Me: grumble, grumble, grumble.)

OK, now I understand why all the parts look the same as my Jamis, except the frame.

Which of course begs the question, what was wrong with the Jamis frame?
(of course if you have a TK2 frame lying around, why not...?)

Thanks, I like it too. :love:

And since we're on the commuter forum, let me note some things about this bike.

-It has a steel frame -- Reynolds 853 main triangle, oh so sweet riding.
-It has 700x28 puncture-resistant tires. I could probably squeeze 30's on there, but the 28's are wide enough for the pavement I ride daily.
-It has durable wheels -- 32-spoke front/36-spoke rear with non-lightweight rims.
-The bars are nearly level with the saddle, and with the stem I'm using I could put them above the saddle if I wanted to. That is, the riding position is all about comfort.
-It has a triple crankset and a 12-30 cassette -- geared to get me up the steepest hills.

So even though this is obviously a road bike, it has a lot of the most important characteristics of a purpose-built commuter. It just doesn't have a rack (personal choice) or fenders (mostly weather-based gear).

I ride my race bike and carry my stuff in a backpack most days. Like most masters racers I know, I have to work and I have to maximize the efficiency of my training time. Since I have to get to work and I have to train, it just makes the most sense to combine the two. Some days I'll even ride to work with my race wheels if I've just glued up new tires or I'm too lazy/rushed to change wheels and brake pads. The anti-racers might find it ridiculous, but whatever.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_7slnwUgAAA10X.jpg:large

Yeah, that Klein caught my attention too. It blends in with the other mountain bike-ish steeds beside it, but it's a nice bike. That one happens to also have clipless pedals on it, tipping that its owner (who I don't know) isn't just your average "hop-on-whatever-bike-is-in-the-garage" kind of commuter. I also like the Bridgestone at the far left of the picture, though I'd never use those handlebars. It would be a good candidate for the "poor man's Rivendell" thread -- certainly has the right lineage, though the aesthetics have been allowed to pursue a rather organic path to the distressed look.

I really don't understand this thread, I commute on every bike in that about section over there and a lot more... I've never gotten grief from anyone here for my choices. Hell my main commuter is in a similar vein to the one the OP linked.. a modern track bike with pursuit bars, no fenders, deep rims, high gearing and just a front brake.. what do you mean "the rest of us" we're all us.. even the hiphy wifeys and the smug ones..

Most people don't care one way or another. Some will comment about how certain types of bikes "aren't good for commuting" or "aren't real commuter bikes". I get what they are saying but at the same time in over a decade of commuting by bike, I've spent most of my commuting miles on bikes that supposedly aren't good for commuting. All I can say is that they've been good for me and would probably suit others just fine too, depending on what they like.

It's worth noting that wearing spandex for commuting will get more criticism than choice of bike.

That's an interesting comparison. If you can just hop on your bike in whatever clothes you'd be wearing anyway and ride to work without needing special clothing (and certainly most of the time you can), then it seems reasonable to think that you should be able to just hop on whatever bike you'd ride anyway and ride to work without needing any special accessories. If the bike you normally ride is a lightweight road bike, why not?

Of course, this forum exists specifically to overthink things, right?

Have backpack will travel.
Yah this and a Six13 and if it rains that's when I get a Dave Scott Ironman out to commute.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=457182

I am a lot more critical of leg shaving then spandex. I can understand why some people choose to wear spandex but guys shaving their legs is something I just don't understand.

You got it. The people who ride bikes but don't need to discuss them aren't going to bother with online forums, so we're a self-selected crowd of over-thinkers. :thumb:

And its a boon for the coyote population too, with all the dead birds to feed on that are killed by windmill farms.

I'll bet my wife would confirm I generate more emissions than a rednecks diesel pickup. :p

Birds significantly outnumber humans on the planet. I think it's not so tragic if we cull a few.

Transphobe. ;)

Good job all of you, keep it up. I'll see you on the road.

You guys shave your legs to commute? Wow, that's impressively hard core. Rock on!

I commute about 5 miles each way on roads in socal. I carry whatever I need in a backpack. Currently riding a vintage steel road frame upgraded to Shimano 5800. A couple of days a week I add about 20 miles to my morning commute for fun. I've been thinking about adding a road bike with disc brakes that takes wide tires been that's a want not a need. Commuting on 700x23 tires and rim brakes with my USB light and no racks/panniers is fine for my daily commute

I really feel sorry for "The Rest of You". Just today, it was raining out, and as I'm cruising down the trail astride my full fendered (and full mud-flapped!) commuter bike, I see this poor soul on a carbon fiber race bike, with skinny tires and no fenders. I felt so bad for him, as he blew by me.

I felt so bad for him, I almost offered to trade bikes; then my selfish side kicked in. No way I can replace my 25 year old commuter. I'm sure that carbon fiber bike would shatter at the first sign of cold weather. Yep, that is what I'm telling myself.

:roflmao2: I see what you did there.

I mean, don't get me wrong, fenders are certainly an improvement but rain is still wet. I think that's sometimes a little overlooked. I do have a couple clip-on fender options for the road or cyclocross bike on rainy days, but 8 miles each way in the rain, I'm going to get wet. And I suck it up and get wet, I certainly can't drive to my job, and taking transit would take a lot longer than riding.

I've commuted by bike for a good longish time, and I've done all kinds of distances on all sorts of bikes. When I've lived closer to work, I've done the commuter bike with fenders, maybe a pannier or basket or whatever, and worn normal clothes. I don't love changing in and out of spandex to get to work. But now that I live further away from work, I would much rather do that and ride my road or cross bike than ride my junky single speed over hill and dale and sweat in my work clothes. When it comes right down to it, I've found over the years that I really prefer rolling lighter and wearing a backpack or messenger bag over dealing with panniers. If I could afford to build myself a dedicated road bike for rainy day commuting with fenders, I would certainly do that, and I hope that my current race bike will eventually be that bike. But I'll still be well over on the roadie side of the spectrum, and as long as I'm still living as far from my job as I currently do, I'll be changing into my spandex for the commute.

I know that some people ride the same distance as I do on commuter bikes in regular clothes, and that's great. I don't have a problem with that. Personally I don't really want to do things that way, and so I don't. But we don't usually just squeeze easily into the boxes that are drawn in places like BF. I've still got my junky commuter bike for cruising around the neighborhood or picking up some groceries and I've had plenty of fun riding that thing. Most of the roadies I know are much the same way, we aren't necessarily that tribal. It's like wearing a different pair of shoes or something.

I love riding by "the rest of us" in the rain (if they happen to be caught out by mistake) with a big dirty stripe up their backside. Makes being prepared on all those nice days worthwhile.

Even in wet years it rarely rains here after April, and we're in the middle of a hundred-year drought, so it's been awhile since fendered commuters have had the opportunity for smuggery against the rest of us out here.

I'm not overly concerned either, but those who are sensitive about the environment to the point of modeling their life around it are often sensitive about birds too.