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.

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.

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.

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.

I love riding my road bike to work, not as nice as the ridley with the race wheels though... I like going fast, I like being nimble, I like being able to somewhat hide from the wind. One or two days a week I'll go with a big back pack with a bunch of clothes and the rest of the week I go really light, rice, and my flat kit. Probably, would just take the train if I didn't have a bike I thought was fun to ride.

I ride in the cold, but I really don't want to ride to work in the rain (no snow here really) just because I don't want to be wet the rest of the day. I rode to the train station the past year in the rain and cold on a hybrid, and it put me in a foul mood. Still, I'm thinking about getting shoe covers and some kind of rain jacket/pants that I can wear when it's over 70 farenheit for more then 10 minutes without feeling like I'm in an oven.

Well, it started creaking. Went to my LBS, we tore the whole thing apart, and I mean everything. Stripped it down to the frame. Refaced and rethreaded the bottom bracket area since that was the only thing we could find that might be an issue. Crank, bottom bracket, fork, headset, everything was good, better than good actually. We even checked the carbon seatpost and cleaned and repasted it. My buddy at the shop was impressed with the condition of everything considering I bought the bike used. Creaking continued, and continually got worse. It was intermittent at first, then became a constant, then became louder. It got so bad that people riding with me were noticing. I started worrying that there was a crack possibly, a bad weld maybe, and that I would be bombing along at 29mph and the frame would fail me. Didn't want to take that chance, so I replaced it. Picked that frame up in Chicago off of Craigslist while visiting my sister. Happened to be my size, the color matched my existing components, and the price was right.

Now I have completely cleaned and waxed the Sonik frame and it is currently being used as a decoration in my apartment. The design and look of it is beautiful, wish that I didn't have to swap it out. Oh, and the TK2? I am faster on it, and it is lighter than the Sonik.

Many moons ago when my commute was 34 miles RT, I rode my MTB with slick tires and front suspension in my street clothes, then 5 years ago that commuting distance bumped up to 60 miles RT, I went all roadie (no shaving though) with fenders and I must say it's really fun.

Most days I commute without even a bicycle

That's why I avoid hi-vis like the plague and wear black.

Some of the rest of us actually race, and the sponsors on our jerseys are mostly local small businesses whose owners we know and whose products and services we use.

you are one hardcore roadie man

talk about being weight conscious

rode home yesterday in the rain without fenders

that poowater streak up your back aint a myth

Have you ever tried to apply sunscreen to a Golden Retriever? My leg hair is just slightly thicker than that.

Yep.

Yep. Ok, so my leg hair isn't that thick at all, but it doesn't need to be. When 180 miles is a typical week* you need to apply sunscreen pretty regularly.


*To be clear, 180 miles is on the low side of average for a racer.