New commuting bike.
 

Well, I've been commuting on my carbon road bike for a little while now and today I took the Schwinn Mesa GSD mountain bike. Interesting... I changed the tires and put some 26x2.0 Specialized Armadillos on it which made it roll easier along with some Slime tubes. This made it pretty much bomb proof. Added some lighting front and rear along with putting the reflectors back on for safety.
What was interesting was that it didn't take but at most 5 more minutes to get to work. I was also able to ride on the shoulder when I wanted because I had no fear of the piles of rocks or whatever other crap was there. It really made it much more fun as I didn't have to stress about the bike. I also have it locked outside on the rack where before I had my bike next to my desk. MTB shoes were much easier to walk in also. Was a little harder on me cardio wise, but that's the reason for switching to the MTB. Only going to take the road bike on the weekend rides and I'm hoping that I'll be able to fly on it after commuting on the MTB. Planning on switching out the front forks with some steel ridged forks from Nashbar soon. Using my messenger bag to tote stuff (not much stuff) so no need to put my rack on it. Overall, I'm pretty happy with this setup. Anyone think I'm a nut for doing this?

nope I bought an old bike so I wont have to worry about a blinged out cycle

I did pretty much the same thing. I have a nice Univega road bike and a cheapy Schwinn MTB from Wally World. I am now using the Schwinn for commuting since I can go off the road and not worry too much about damaging my bike.

I bought some cheapo slicks from Wally World and put those on it along with a new wheel for the back that has a quick release on it. For $200 I've got an ideal commuter. I've put almost 900 miles on this thing so far and the only thing I've had to do is replace one tire and tube due to a piece of glass.

Rigid mtbs w/ slicks are great commuters if you're not doing long (15-20 miles or more) distances. They make the roadie bike feel even lighter.

My commuter is an old bike converted to fixed gear. I hate having to spend lot of time on maintence and I don't want to waste a bunch of money on something that may not last more than a few years of my abuse. So my commuter is a good quality bike I got for cheap and is extremely simple for low maintence and high reliability. I keep my nice bike fairly clean and maintained for weekend rides.
Craig

Thats a good idea to use the more robust bike as a commuter but man I love to ride the roadie its so much easier. I put on armadillos 26"x1.25" on my hybrid for the summer but I may go back to the stock tires for the winter months what with all the rain and stuff we get here also will make that cardio workout tougher. I cut about 10 minutes off my commute with my road bike,of course I was trying to see how fast I could go which explains some of that time difference. On my hybrid I'm usually around 12 to 14 mph and on the road bike I did 15 to 18 and a couple of places on a nice flat up to 25mph. I couldn't believe it was me doing that. Speed is fun

Acouple of my friends thoght I was insane for buying my X02 Bridgestone(and even I made fun of these bikes in the 90's). I admit I probably paid a bit much but the bike was essentially stock and if nothing else if I hated it I could restore and sell it.

Oh hell no! For getting around where I live the X02 is perfect....and I ended up saving 300+ over buying a Jamis Aurora/.Bianchi Volpe(including accessories)...plus I'd used MTB's w/slicks alot when a worked as a messenger. I'm more liable to do things on a 26" wheeled bike I don't feel comfortable doing on a 700c....allow me to build me a 29er and that may change....I have a hard enough time keeping two fixies together now.

I believe a MTB/26er bike is the way to go...particularly for those on a budget wanting something to work with....**** good wheelsets alone pretty much make it viable...ideal for those not doing uber miles. All my big wheels are fixies...