That is some great points, for myself I can vouch for most of what has been said. I load my Giant Rincon down with panniers, trunk and cruise down the many roads in town. It is sad to see that often the roads are not at there best so once again the mtb comes out on top. I will admit I have not been on a road bike but I know I took my Schwinn Ranger 2.6fs for about 130 at Target, And covered close to 5000 miles before it was stolen and from there stepped up to the Rincon. And so far so good.

Great Insight.

Ride On....The holidays are here so ride some more

then get yourself a nice 20lb MTB bike

Actually I do own a MTB with slicks for commuting, because it can handle potholes, broken glass, dirt, mud, debris, and curbes; wider tires offers a confortable ride over all those; and an upright position helps looking into traffic. My MTB weights 11kg (24lb), standing better against a similar price roadie. By the way, I have a 23 yo roadie and it's 25mm tires seems unsafe now to me.

Regards

What does a nice 20lb mtb cost anyway? I'd bet it costs substantially more than a nice 18lb road bike.

Just going off bikes direct, you can get yourself a 20# mtb(debatable on mtbr) for $1600 with some questionable components. About the same amount they charge for full carbon, full dura ace road bikes. To actually buy a decent 20# mtb it would cost upwards of $3000 in the real world.

well, not really..... Replace those heavy tires with skinnies, and a few other things, and the weight comes down real quick. my personal ride cost about $1500 built from parts (the expensive way) and is about 25lb. Another few hundred for a lighter frame, wheels, & convert to rigid fork, and it would be at 20lb.

Premium low-20's hardtails are very available at around $1500 and might break the 20 barrier with slicks & carbon fork.

anywayze, just sayin, mtb's have a rep for being heavy & clunky, but they don't have to be.

cheers

Very funny - I actually went straight to BD as well
i did buy one of their bikes: Fantom Cross. I like it. I'd commute on it except.... well... my mtb is better at it

Maybe acroy...High end mtb forks weigh around 3lbs and their tires weigh around 400 grams. You could probably shave off a pound. I still fail to see the point of using a mtb to commute if it's primarily on roads and you're not on a budget. But hey, that's just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions.

I used to. Riding the dirt road down the center of the Los Penasquitos Nature Preserve allowed me to cut 4 miles off the all-road variation of my commute. And I got to race coyotes. Best commute I ever had.

I used to have lots of bikes, but then realized I had 2 needs: commuting/kid hauling, and long rural paved road rides.

I sold my tri-bike and my road race bike, and kept my cross bike and my mtn bike. The mtn bike is for commuting. Its a 90s era steel masterpiece. I use it to commute because cheap tires are abundant (even with studs), and I can add a rack, wire my light/battery setup and leave it on there with no concerns, and my 7 speed setup is pretty indestructible.

My other bike is a converted JTS with campy components and Krysrium wheels. I figured this was the better option for the long rural rides, and I wouldn't trust it to be locked up at work, exposed to the elements.

i've used both a lot... my commute roads are bad enough, i'm just more comfortable on the mtb. plus I can go up & down curbs with ease, and wack unanticipated stuff on the road without incident.

back in Cali the situation was the reverse, and i went everywhere on the road bike.

to each their own

I'm on the road bike today as the roads are finally dry and permit it (I hope enough, at least) but am thoroughly convinced anybody who's so dogmatic as to think MTBs have no place in a commuter's stable have never really been through a real winter!

I'll say even though I believe a solid cross bike to be the epitome of the do it all bike, there are conditions I've commuted in where having less than a 2.1 tire is a huge PITA. I've yet to see even a cross bike that can accomodate that!

MTB's have a place, but I'd never use one in Denver. There's just too much nice weather and too little snow.

Back to the original poster's question, why so many mtb's?

1. they are cheaper than road bikes?
2. they are cheaper than tri bikes
3. they are not as choice of a thief target as a road bike
4. it's hard to find touring bikes, and they are pricey anyway.
5. they're cheap, cheap, cheap.

Most commuters on the forum are still in school and are pinching pennies. If you're riding at school, there are no safe places to leave an expensive road bike. FYI- road bikes start at about $1,500 and can easily go to $10,000.

You want a good road bike for commuting, then consider this:
https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes...land/portland/

You'ld have to replace the idiot fenders with real fenders, add lights, different pedals, etc. You're starting at $1700 and then adding 2 to 600. Most commuters on these forums don't ride in place of paying for a gym membership, but ride to save money. They can't justify spending $2,000+ for a commute bike. Althought, they would never, never been seen driving in a $2,000 junker. Go figure.

I found my touring bike.

Too much nice weather and not enough snow? I must spend too much time on the platte trail.
That and most of my route is shaded and my street is still caked in ice and snow.

I respectively disagree with your assessment of how useful MTBs could be in Denver. Though it would be more of a rare thing. I wouldn't invest in an expensive MTB if I was just going to use it as an occasional bad weather commuter.

That being said, I am still trying to decide between a MTB, crosscheck, karate monkey, singlespeed 29er, and a few other options for a winter commuter. My tarmac is parked in the basement and my fixed gear can handle 25 mm tires at most. Another issue is that even 35mm tires seem squirrelly to me in snow.

Another disagree here. I was dropped off today by the wife because my daughter had a doctor's appointment and I found out, much to my chagrin, that Cherry Creek State Park (1/3rd of my commute one way) is still covered in snow and ice and my 25mm tires just won't cut it.

Unbelievably the Trail through Parker was the most plowed, in condition part of my commute! Regardless, it wasn't bad, but last week there's no way that tires narrower than 2 inches would have done what my MTB tires 2.1 inches wide did!

I've decided on a Surly Crosscheck myself. My reasoning is the larger wheels and the more road-like geometry. I feel more efficient in a more tucked position, and I can put riser bars on it if I really want to be more upright for the winter. It also has braze-ons for rack and fenders, it has a high BB and it has horizontal dropouts if I want to run it SS, fixed or with an IGH. My only problem is that it doesn't have disc bosses. Oh well. Put 45s on it, though, and it's just in the realm of doable during those snowstorms.

Denver has the WORST cleanup after snowstorms of any snowy city I've ever been in. They could take a serious lesson from Grand Rapids, MI or even Detroit. I COULD get by with just a Crosscheck, but the fact is I started commuting AFTER I had a MTB (for fun in the mountains) and a road bike (for fun cruising fast on the roads). So, on a snowy day what comes out? MTB.

The MTB might only come out a few days a year, but it's evidence that it does have a place in Denver.

I've used a road, touring, comfort, cruiser and mountain bike on my commute, and the only thing I dislike about mountain bikes is the front shocks. I usually try to get a rigid fork, I have some serious hills in my neighborhood, and a heavy Rockshocks fork is about the worst for tackling a climb.

I don't know guys. I've tried both my bikes on winter roads here in NH which is packed with snow. My cross bike with regular 38c knobbies seems more stable than my mountain bike with 2.25in tires. I havn't tried studded snow tires on my mtb but I do have some for my cross bike and it seems to work great cept in situations where my rims get caked with snow. If I converted the front to disc brakes I think I'd be golden. The only bad thing is hitting road debris you're not expecting. It's quite a jolt on my cross bike where my mountain bike would probably soak it up completely. But then again, alot of bike commuters on mountain bikes use really crappy suspension or remove it altogether...

I think narrowish tends to do better than wideish for snow tires. Unless you're riding around on a surly pugsley wtih 4 inch tires to run on top of snow.

I paid $900 for a 2005 Felt F65 brand new. It weighed about 18lbs equipped with Ultegra 10spd (except for the brakes and crankset). It had crappy wheels but a set of Open Pro/Ultegra wheels can be had for about $200 from Performance.

I'd say that's a fair bit cheaper than your 25lb $1500 mtb.

I just prefer the responsive ride of a nice road bike. I don't have to worry about rain soaked roads, snow, or locking my bike up when I get to work (it stays inside right next to my desk) so I commute on a quality lightweight road bike. Again, it's much faster than a mtb and I enjoy that.

There is no advantage whatsoever for me to ride a mtb but there are a number of disadvantages. I tried commuting on a mtb when I owned one and hated it, I even went so far as to replace the tires with slicks but it still didn't come close to the road bike. The fork soaked up a lot of energy and it was noticeably slower than the same commute on my road bike.

So, the road bike wins!!!

I would say it is about 60% mountain bikes and 40% road bikes for commuting here. Usually the mountain bikes I see are cheapo brand Wal-Mart stuff and the only guess I can come up with is that these individuals are able to get a new bike for less than what some people are asking for a 80's road bike on CL.

No they don't have to be heavy and clunky but by the time you've made all the changes you've listed you're a set of drop bars away from having a very expensive road bike with bad shifters and weird brakes.

hey is that the volcano at lago arenal by any chance??? Pretty area

hey, you're in SD. The nastiest conditions there are what, 70 and sunny?? so shaddap

when i lived in SoCal I rode a road bike exclusively. I'd prefer to ride a road bike. but the poor road bike just don't cut it for my commute here... i tried.

"bad" shifters? eh? brakes that work all in all conditions are "weird"? well, it's yer opinion, so okay...

just sayin, my main point here is that I am one of many who have been pleasantly surprised that a MTB with a few changes can work very well on the road, and have much more forgiving ride & better stopping power than a road bike. it just depends what you need. I wouldn't use it if it didn't work.

My mountain bikes have nicer shifters than any of my road bikes except my Bertoni which has Campy Centaur, and the brakes are twice as good.