love/hate relationship with your commuter bike?
 

I had the day off yesterday and decided I'd take the opportunity to go for an extended ride. Since the weather was looking iffy and the roads were still wet I opted to ride the bike I normally commute on since it has full fenders and fatter tires than the 700x23s on my road bike.

I'm not sure if it was the more sluggish handling of this bike or my being so used to using it to slog to work. It was probably a combination of the two, but I really didn't enjoy it that much. This bike also has memories of my most recent wreck for me, which it survived just fine due to its tank-like construction. I was a little less lucky. I may also also be associating my annoyance with the weather with this bike. It seems like nature has decided to reward my decision to purchase and outfit a good all-weather commuter with constant rain :rolleyes:

I guess I've come to think of this bike as more of a business partner than a friend. I love its rock-solid reliability, and ability to get me around safely, but it's not that fun to hang out with. Can any of you relate to this?

You live in Seattle and expect something other than rain this time of year???

When I lived in Olympia (many years ago) it started raining in mid-September and didn't stop until mid-April. :o


I think you picked the right bike for the ride. With wet roads you probably would have crashed on the road bike.

Not so much. I love my original commuter. My new commuter/touring bike, I don't like so much...but it is rock solid.

I can relate :) At probably 35 pounds, with 950-gram studded tires, full fenders, front panniers and lights, my commuting bike isn't as fast off the line as I'd like and it doesn't like to cruise very fast either, no matter what I set the wattage dial for ;) But it's the right tool for the job at the moment... it's snowing again, in fact :p

Heck yeah... that's why we have "the other bike..."

My commuter is a tough "truck" with fatter wheels, mirrors, thumb shifters and racks and lights all in place to battle the daily commute.... bad roads, darkness, inattentive motorists, and the need to shelp stuff to work.

My "other bike" is clean, shiny and is intentionally stripped down to just basic bike so it goes fast... gives me that "14 year old feeling" while riding that bike. I love taking care of this bike... the paint is nice, the works are simple.

My commuter gets taken care of, but it is a duty... the paint is chipped, there is rust in places and the beauty is in it's utility.

I will ride "the commuter" in places that are just too beat up to take "the road bike," but then it is usually to run errands... not to feel the wind in my hair, so to speak.

i have a go-fast commuter for nice weather and a full fendered tank for the ugly days.

my go-fast commuter is much funner to ride but if it is raining/wet my fenders more than make up for my lack of quickness.

I have a 20 lb MTB for fun and a 35 lb tank (Trek 800 rigid MTB with fenders/flaps, rack, lights, mirror, et cet) for everything else. I do some recreational road cycling with it. And some rail trail riding. I like it better for those things than I like the MTB or my 1978 Schwinn Varsity (a 35 lb retro/ironic wall ornament).

Right now the Trek is more than my best friend -- really more a two-wheeled extension of myself. When I have a sweet road bike (soon, I hope) I'll probably share your opinion, OP.

I try not to blame my bikes for my ride quality or enjoyment, and I like 700x37c tires, even for centuries....one of my main commuters is a fourty pound + (probably closing in on 50) vintage cruiser with big wald baskets front and back, fenders and a kickstand- I'll ride it around Ballard and over thru West Seattle before heading home on a post work ride without any complaints.

I'd recommend some attitude adjustment, some one-on-one therapy miles with your heavy steed until you realize, 'she's not HEAVY, she's my COMMUTER."

My best bike is my commuter and I enjoy it quite a bit. Maybe that will change when I pick up a road bike sometime in the next year or 2.

i'm not enjoying my (only) bike, but for different reasons (it sucks). the original idea was some kind of strange combination of instant gratification (i want a bike now), delayed gratification (pay yer dues, then you can do what you like), humility (i don't know nothing bout bikes), and the mental moebius thing my dad used to call 'you children always have to complicate things'. and over the winter i've been getting sorrier and sorrier.

i've now got to where i'd be really happy to own a different bike, but i set myself a bar i don't want to back away from: ride this bike to and from work for the duration of this contract, which is so drab you're not going to care either way. then you'll be riding to somewhere else, you can say you did this one all the way through, and you can go find a bike that you'll like. heh. forgot that first i have to have somewhere to ride to.

Yeah. I can relate to a lot of that. There's nothing like trudging to work to help you learn what you do and don't like in a bike. It also tells you a lot about yourself. I definitely value my commuting time for dealing with my various neuroses. :o

My personal bar right now is to wear out the tires I have before purchasing new (and hopefully a little sportier) ones.

One question: Why are you making things more miserable than they already are?

Between now and springtime I want to build a SS/Fixie with NOTHING on it (no fenders, rack, lights, etc.) with really skinny high pressure tires for fun lightweight rides.

But in the meantime I only have one bike, my Soma Double Cross all-rounder / commuter, and I like it just fine for now. All love, no hate.

I have four bikes with four different personalities, and my two commuter bikes aren't the worst of the lot. The non-ice commuter has steep angles and handles like a nervous cat. Still, it's great to ride around town, with strong wheels, fenders and a 40x14 gear that's good for everything. The ice bike is a pig, but it handles perfectly in the snow and ice. It's well under 30 lbs as well. The mtn bike is a xc race bike and rides like it. Light, great climbing, confident descending, all that and a bag of chips. My road bike doesn't get used too much anymore. It's heavy compared to newer bikes, and the frame is painfully stiff, transmitting every vibration and road gap.

So, do I love or hate my commuter[s]? No way! They're lighter, faster and perfect for getting me around town. They cost me less than $400 each to boot...

heh. i should have known someone with a straightforward, businesslike outlook on life would ask that. it's just an extension of the same logic that makes people ride bikes to work in the first place, in the teeth of all the 'logic' that asks: why ride a bike for x+y minutes when you could drive a car for x minutes? or why learn arithmetic in a world that contains calculators, or read the book in a world that has coles notes, etc etc.

specifically: when i bought the bike i was riding all of a mile and a half on nothing terrain and only knew my future six weeks ahead. no reason whatever to spend ten times as much on a bike specifically tailored for a ride that didn't exist, wouldn't last, and would be replaced by something i couldn't foresee. then i started doing this 6-mile ride, and there was no reason to spend ten times as much on a bike specifically tailored to soften difficulties i hadn't discovered yet in a ride i wasn't sure i was going to do regularly. took me some time to discover them, but now there's no reason to spend ten times as much on a bike tailored to soften difficulties that i've dealt with for four months and that will only last two more weeks. after which - well, return to the starting point. makes perfect sense, really.

I have a love hate relationship with my commuter (hardtail MTB). I never use it for anything but commuting. Too heavy, too slow, etc. It's is perfect for commuting until I see a 2006 catalog from any bike company.

Then I start to see all of the compromises I have made to make the ultimate commuter. My newest "must have" is an enclosed chainguard. Maybe I should buy a Breezer. Of course, that means a hub gear which narrows my gear range. I need more help to get up the steep hills on my route. But I could pay the big bucks for a Rohloff and get my current range. Or I could save a couple hundred dollars by getting an electric hub motor for the front wheel! Oh then I need to put the battery where my Topeak trunk bag goes. :cry:

Why just get a chainguard? I could get one of those shaft drive bikes hooked into a Nexus 8! Hmmmm.... another way to go.

On second thought any of these things would make my bike valuable and attractive to thieves. Who in their right mind would commute on a mega buck bike?!?! Oh hell .... I'll just keep my bike the way it is. ;)

Classic! That's what I was getting at by starting this thread.

You should at least get some streamers though. I hear those make ya faster.

Because it's fun and it usually takes me x+y minutes to drive as well as to bike (and I don't like paying for a second car, which I would have to do if I drove to work)
The math part I cannot argue with--you are right.
The point about reading a book is not to get the plot, but to experience the story and language.

You do what works for you. I hope you get a better gig after this one is up--one that is a fantastic commute in an interesting place.

Thats why I don't read anymore...

Sorry, can't relate, I love my commuter. Of course, that is because I can't bring myself to by a cheapo commuter instead of using my beloved Fischer X-calibur (outfitted with slicks). I don't mess around with anything to weigh it down, just a few LED lights. I use a backpack to carry my stuff and sling my Krypto NYC chain over my shoulder. It does help that it never rains here in the desert and my commute is an easy 3 miles each way.

Hehe it basically describes my Surly LHT. I think my road bike has spoilt me. (I'd still choose the LHT for any long distance ride though)...