My commuter of the last 3 years. Finally took a pic of her without the studded tires:

It's fun to see someone use shifters like that on a bar like that. It actually looks good.
Technically you could have wired the cable along the bars, below the bar tape and it would have looked just slightly cleaner.

Just my 2 cents. I like the bike

Looks like you're ready for a big adventure!

Here is my daily commuter bike. It is a Giant ATX 870 MTB that has been civilized for urban use. I think it is a 1996 year model, I've had it for over a decade. I've got SKS fenders, Esge 2 legged kickstand, Nitto bars, Silver ratchet shifters, Delta rear rack, found locker room basket, Sturmey Archer dynohub up front driving a Spanninga Luceo headlight with standlight. Several of these parts were acquired from Rivendell or VO. The only original parts on the bike are the frame, front derailleur and seatpost. Everything else has either been replaced due to wear, purchased to upgrade, or salvaged off of curbed bikes (I live in a college town, lots of curbed bikes). The original bike itself I purchased at University surplus auction.

Future upgrades are a "devolved" headset to a threaded one, so I can put a quill stem on it, the bars are too low, and I don't like the looks of tall aheadset style headsets. I'm planning on replacing the silver shifters with Suntour ratcheting barcons. The silver shifters just don't seem very heavy duty like the Suntours.

https://s173.photobucket.com/albums/w...mmuter%20bike/

Well my commute is 17 miles each way and I am training for long ride in June

My commuter, depicted on an unusually glorious New England spring morning. It's a Cross-Check I'm running as a SS. I haul my toddler around on weekend errands, thus the Ibert seat up front. Apologies for the visually discordant background; this wasn't -- ahem -- a carefully planned photo shoot.

Oh my teary eyes, how much I've missed you!
That two wheeled beauty I have befriended
9000 miles and so much much to do!
To the LBS, I'll get you mended!

Oh, now how you stand all resplendent
With new stem, headset and fenders black
no hydraulics for it was meant!
Let's get you home tae fit yer rack

The Surf (aka Rabbi Burns) 2010


Got a Cube Nature over a year ago and did some big miles in the first year. It became apparent what was actually needed to undertake a years worth of commuting so:

New Fork - Surly Karate Monkey CroMo 29er (got rid of the stock hydraulic job....no use)
Two wheel rebuilds with DMR Revolver disc hubs front and rear (cartridge bearings...banish the cup and cone hubs)
New FSA headset (cartridge bearing)
Shorter stem (I was feeling a bit stretched over the bike)
And a Avid BB7 disc brake system with Avid levers and Goodridge cabling. I needed a system that i could easily maintain and was robust (ditched the failing Hayes Stroker Ryde set)

Trying to find optimum position so I have not cut the steerer yet. It feels a lot better than it did set up like this though and I'm looking forward to doing some big miles. The angle I went for on the rebuild was to make the bike as easy to maintain as possible but only time will tell if I've made the right choices.

other info:

Shimano Deore OEM 48/36/26 crank on XT hollowtec II bottom bracket (the last XT BB lasted 6000miles!!!!!)
XT long cage derailleur (again the XT jockeys lasted 6000 miles)
Thomson seat post seems to have remedied my habit of breaking them.
And Ergo grips...comfort is everything.

This is one of my two commuting fixies that I built from dumpster parts. The frame originally had a set of sprung forks but they were very heavy and I wanted to quicken the steering a little so I replaced them with the shorter rigid ones shown. However although this bike is a lot of fun to ride it can be a little too twitchy when traveling through alleys or gravel and cobblestone streets at a good clip so I'm looking to braze up a new rigid fork. It should result in a more compliant and relaxed geometry and better pedal clearance since I run 170 crank arms.

My commute is the same length. I'm not training for any kind of a long ride, but I manage with a little less



If I'm packed for softball after work, I add a trunk bag.

Updated pic.
New chain-cover and macgyvering brakes.

Razor - think you can fit some inverted brake levers in there? That would probably look a ton better than those brake levers you got on there now.

Those are probably the stubbiest bullhorns I've ever seen.

Finally got a decent pic of my commuter bike

how in the heck are you actuating the levers? they should be facing downwards.

Holy smokes that La Cruz looks great. It looks close to the next DF I want to build up.

Figure I'd make my first post here in this thread, since commuting is what I do most.



This is my dirt-cheap, most likely bought from a Walmart Magna bike that I got from a friend for free. It might not be terribly nice or even very durable, but "Any bike is better than no bike."

I had to go dyo cargo and under $60.00!

Under $30.00 invested on this one.

Do you have four PB Superflashes on the back of that thing?
Do people regularly succumb to epileptic seizures as you pass?

Nice ride. How does the friction shifter work with the IGH? And what is that mounted on your seat tube?

THATS AMAZING! love it!

I just added a road bike to my commute, still need saddle and tape....had to paint and buy components, looks awesome!

Thanks,

It's indexing Jtek shifter .
And Abus Bordo foldable lock.

I like the bamboo front rack mechanicalron!

I like to give my car driving friends as much help with seeing me as possible. I've been the recipient of the pathetic excuse 'Sorry mate I didn't see you' more times than I have fingers and toes and my apporach to hi-viz is probably a knee-jerk reaction to that. Personally, when it comes to cycling in Glasgow, I don't think four is enough.

That is a nice bike. But then again when I look through this thread I always suffer from 'Other Peoples Sandwich Syndrome'. The idea is that you can make yourself a cheese sandwhich and it tastes alright. However, if SOMEONE ELSE makes a cheese sandwhich with exactly the same ingredients it WILL taste 100 times better than the one you made yourself. It's the same looking at other peoples bikes.......they always look nicer\interesting\more desireable than your own bike.

I hear you, my ride rocks two tail lights: a PB SFlash and a DiNotte 140R. I imagine that when you've got all four of your lights flashing, it's like being behind an emergency vehicle. I noticed that after I got the DiNotte, cars started giving me more room when they were behind me.

True 'nuff. There are a lot of flash rides posted around the forums, and they tend to impress me as much as make me jealous. But if I had a really good looking bike, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to bring myself to leave it locked up outside, anywhere. And that'd make commuting a bit of a hassle.

My ride is pretty similar to yours and even though it's never been complimented for its looks, I still love it. It's mad functional, it does everything: road, trail, work, school, and shopping. As a humble MTB commuter, I tend to be impressed by bikes that look either faster (road and cyclocross) or prettier (dutch, roadster, vintage) than mine. This bike, for example:

...looks pimp! You and I may have cheese sandwiches but mechanicalron here has a bacon cheeseburger, and it makes my mouth water. I still like cheese sando's, though.