I commuted on my newly built MTB with Soma Oxfords and my return trip took 30 minutes longer. I always ride a road bike with drop bars and clipped in.

1987 Marcel Calborn

1985 Centurion Ironman

I have a MTB for commuting (a late 80s Specialized Stumpjumper Comp) and a 1981 Fuji S12S LTD. The Stumpy has fenders so I use it on bad weather days but I do like the Fuji better when the weather is decent. Paid $60 for the Fuji which is about right for a commuter/lock up bike. I'm getting new Schwalbe green guard tires and they'll cost me more than the bike did.

Have you considered a gravel bike as a compromise? The roads by me are terrible so I switched to a gravel bike for commuting. Not quite as fast as a road bike but much more comfortable!

True; if increasing speed and performance metrics are your chief (or only) objective in selecting an appropriate bicycle for commuting.

That is what the OP wrote but there might be reasons other than speed to like a drop bar bike for commuting. I like how they handle in traffic; YMMV.

In this forum we see people with longer rides settle in on a road bike. Not always a racing version as they still need to bring stuff. But usually with drop bars.

For a shorter ride almost anything can be of service. I have some dirt between home and work and sometimes take my MTB. It's not like that one though.

I appreciate my road bike, and it is indeed the most efficient in terms of translating effort into speed and distance, but it's very often not the right bike for the kind of trip I'm taking at that moment - hence the cruisers with bags, etc. But riding a heaver bike as a default does seem to make me faster once I get back on the road bike.

The thicker the tire, the more the effort.

Rocket science?

Riding an ebike, motorcycle, car or a bus all take less effort than riding any kind of bicycle. Therefore they must "beat" any type of pedal bicycle as a means of personal transport for commuting, eh?

In over 40 years of bicycle commuting, I always preferred to ride a bicycle tailored to my enjoyment of bicycle commuting and practical for the task.

My commute is a 40 mile scenic round trip with a few stop lights at each end. 3 hours on the road bike vs. 3.5 hours on the cruiser using the same effort. If I’m running errands, shopping, going to the beach, etc, any bike is fine. But for the daily grind and getting home via streets and paths? Nothing beats a road bike.

seems this is an experiment in extremes... the road bike does allow for an aero position but considter the other bike, short top tube with sweeping handlebars...
basically the rider is ramrod straight on the saddle which is the most extreme un aero position... I suspect that if you were to put a flatbar with bar ends, you could achieve comfort while also allowing for a more aero position.

I commute 1 hr each way on my CX bike with 28mm slicks and mudguards. It's not one of those twitchy CX frames, it rides like a normal bike. It's 3 Kg heavier than my road bike, that, combined with a backpack means I end up a couple of KM AVS slower than I'd expect. The CX has SPD's and the roadie has road clipless.
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The OP is obviously an extreme outlier in commuting 40 miles a day. The standard commuting bikes used throughout the world for at least the last 100 years have almost universally had some form of flat bars.

In my experience of having commuted by bike almost every weekday for 20 years and using just about every conceivable bike configuration (track bike with tubulars and one brake, various road bikes, mountain bike, and hybrid, all with their stock handlebars), the ideal setup turned out to be a combination of flat bars and add-on aero bars. Safer than drops in the city, faster than drops elsewhere.

By "thicker," you meant "wider," I take it.

Real science: after decades of skinny tire/high pressure being the mantra for high-speed cycling, tests revealed that running moderately wider tires at moderately lower pressure works best under most conditions.

Both statements are true, but the OP's opinion and choice of equipment for commuting does not seem as much of an outlier among the enthusiasts who post on the BF commuting list. It is easy to see how a road bike enthusiast perusing the pictures and advice offered about bike commuting by numerous posters on this list, would think his preferences and priorities represent those of a typical bicycle commuter.

Perhaps true. But IIRC the average European bike commute is 3 km (don't remember if that was round trip or one way). The last 15 years of my bike commute was 10 miles one way (or more, depending on route). A "road bike" setup surely did help on windy days, and I never had any safety or sight line issues.

Do you think your 10 mile commute represents the distance of the "average" American bike commute or rather the commute of the BF "enthusiasts" that post commuting recommendations on this list?

Vintage Road Bikes are not comfortable for me. And many others I encounter feel the same way.

BOL to those long commuters......

Better still would have been flat bars plus aero bars.

The last 20 years of my commuting consisted of 4 miles in Baltimore followed by a train ride followed by 3 miles in DC in the morning and the reverse in the afternoon. Drops for the first 10 years, flat bars plus aero for the last 10 years. (As we used to say when I was a kid, "Don't knock it if you haven't tried it.")

I have no idea what the nationwide average is. In my area, though there aren't many bike commuters, I'd guess the average commute is 5-12 miles one way, excluding homeless riders. It's a minimum 4 miles, and up, from apartments and houses to my workplace. My point is that worldwide averages are meaningless if you live and work outside compact city centers -- like most residents of the U.S.

The average American does not ride a bike much at all but he might own one. Who wants to be average? lol

Also meaningless to place much significance on commuting equipment recommendations for commuting distances that only a miniscule percentage of current commuters in any location, whether motorized or human powered will even consider doing by bicycle.
Note that bicyclists who do not fit the profile of the enthusiasts who post on BF may also considered among the population of average bicycle commuters even if "enthusiasts" would prefer to ignore their existence.

The guy who rides his BMX to the bus stop is not looking for advice from the either the roadies or the retirees on Bike Forums, either

Not if the new or prospective bicycle commuter (or casual recreational bicyclist) is looking for relevant advice that addresses his stated uses for his bicycle; but that won't keep the roadies/retired roadies, group riding roadies and bike shop mavens who cater to roadies from providing the same old, same old spend more money/upselling product/road riding advice to one and all. The same clique of advisors make no secret of an attitude that bicyclists who do not share their road riding/fitness goals are unworthies who should find someplace else to discuss assumed putzing around without purpose on unworthy bicycles.

OK, I'll bite. Do you regularly commute by bicycle? And if so, how long is your commute and do you think that distance is a norm?