5 of my 6 bikes have fenders and racks, all 6 have lights and a bag. I simply prefer to be prepared for, rather than work around issues

AFAIK - the only way to go bare bones is to lay in the desert and let the vultures do their thing (not the ONLY way).

BTW- the above notwithstanding, I can't post any bike photos because I do ride bare bones, no camera or cell phone.

I don't have fenders on my bike, never really had a need for them and I rode year 'round last year. I do however have a rear rack which shields some road spray from going up my back if the roads are wet. Ironically I still wore a backpack for 80% of my 20-mile one way commutes. Trying to convince myself to bike commute now but 45 miles one way is simply too much, the 2hr a day drive is tiring enough I can't imagine riding at least 8hrs/day.

I was a member of the sweaty back club this morning. I recently built a 2001 LeMond Buenos Aires to be a fun bike to ride on really nice days. Until now I've been getting by with hauling in extra clothes and lunches on the fender-beauty when I saw a nice day ahead on the calendar so that I could ride completely unencumbered. Today was my first day back after a vacation that centered around rolling my LHT fully loaded over 340 miles of crushed limestone and mud, so waking up to sunny skies and smooth pavement, I just had to hop on a road bike. I tossed my stuff in a backpack and reveled in the bliss.

As for who exactly represents "the rest of us" I suppose that's a relatively philosophical discussion, but when I got to work this morning I noticed something that seemed relevant. I parked where I normally parked, with a rack all to myself. The adjacent rack happened to be loaded with the variety of bikes that I think are representative of the majority of bike commuters (though perhaps not the type who participate in this forum). The juxtaposition of these images strikes me as being fairly symbolic.





So yeah, I feel like I'm fairly different from the majority of my fellow commuters. Even my regular commuter with its rack and panniers is more like my LeMond than it is like the other bikes above.

FWIW, just behind where I was standing to take these pictures, on my side of the aisle, was a recumbent with a full wind screen. There was an e-bike just out of frame on the more heavily used side.

My mom always said I was special but I have to admit that it's nice to have my specialness recognized by others.

Average people are the most special people in the world. That's why God makes so many of them.

Now it all makes sense.

Thanks for that. There is an ugly thread of "unracerism" in bike culture in the USA. The odd thing is that this does not really exist in nations where most people ride "city bikes".

I love Mikael Colville-Andersen's quote about the relationship of Danes with their bikes:

Few judge others for owning a Miele vacuum cleaner. It's just a vacuum cleaner.

[MENTION=158672]FBinNY[/MENTION] i stand by my earlier statement regarding the ease of misinterpretation online, hahaha. Jumped to my defense when I wasn't attacked.

I love commuting as light as possible. And I love peace of mind/the ability to deal with at least a flat or a dramatic change in weather. These two desires often conflict.

I am getting the reckless urge to ride bmx again though. Only a pair of shorts and shoes; no gears, brakes, cables, or nonessential parts. Bombproof bike.

All my bikes have have fenders and lights that can be removed in a couple of seconds.

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.

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.

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.