I am preparing to go carless in March! I have been commuting by bike most days for the last couple years. I had a Kona Jake that I bought when I was just getting into it and I wanted something a little middle of the road and pretty versatile and I had been planning on doing Cross last fall. Anyway, I had a pretty major bike-car collision in December (I am getting the pins out of my arm on Tuesday!) and my bike is understandably unridable. It was the car driver's fault and my medical bills are being covered and my bike will be replaced as well. So, I am seeing this as a chance to get a better bike! I did some training for cross racing last year, but I have decided it's not for me. I'm much more comfortable cheering on my friends than doing it myself. But, I know now that my bike is going to be my car so I want to get a good commuter/tourer. Right now I am looking at:

Surly Long Haul Trucker
Jamis Aurora
Trek Portland

I'm obviously going to do test rides once I am able, but I'm really looking for personal experience recommendations. Thanks!

I don't have any input on the specific bikes, but I have general advice about going car-free: Have a good idea how you're doing your grocery and other shopping in advance. It may impact your bicycle and equipment selection.

I use a touring bike for commuting, it's not really the best choice in my opinion. The weight is overkill and the handling is not ideal. That said, I do it every day and it's certainly not impossible.

Consider a cross bike, or a practical road bike (like a Pacer) or even a rigid mountain bike with appropriate tires and braze-ons - if your commute isn't super long.

It really depends on what your commute looks like, though.

I just recently made the decision between an Aurora and an LHT myself. I went with the LHT because of the ability to fit wider tires. I wanted to be able to put studded tires and fenders on it. Would have been tight on the Aurora. That said, the Aurora is a nice bike. One thing it has that the LHT doesn't have is STI shifters instead of bar ends. I like the bar ends just fine though. The LHT seems really built to last, and great for hauling loads.
The other thing is that the geometry of the LHT was better for me. It has a relatively long top tube (versus seat tube) compared to the Aurora. I am tall, with a long torso, so that works for me. Personally, I think they are both great bikes for commuting.

I have a Pacer and a Trucker....among others. They both work for commuting, but it really depends on what I'm doing that day. I'll ride the LHT when the weather is potentially crappy since it has fenders and the Pacer doesn't. I'll take 2 days worth of clothes in on the LHT and leave one so I can ride the Pacer. I like to rotate them. The Pacer is decidedly faster and more nimble in traffic. But so much of it depends on your riding style and where you're riding. Before I had them, I used my Motobecane Fantom CX as a commuter. Now I think I'm going to try Cross out this fall and am in the process of turning it back into a true CX bike. Good luck, I loves my Surlys, but I also love the Fantom CX. I'm recommending an employee of mine look into the Specialized Allez Double Steel as a commuter. The price is right.

Thinking outside the box here...

I'd consider a folding bicycle like a Brompton P6 to be an excellent PDX commuter... if you have never ridden what is considered to be the world's best folder you should really stop by Clever Cycles and talk to Todd and Martina and see about going for a test ride.

They give up nothing to a full sized bike in performance, cost about as much as a Portland, and have some advantages in that you can usually bring them in to buildings with you and if you use the rail for multi modal commutes you won't have to worry about a shortage of bike hooks.

If you are traveling it is compact enough to go on a plane as luggage as it will fit in a standard case.

The P6 is designed for touring... the riding position is very adjustable from upright to much more aero.

The Portland is a really nice bike but feel that it would be better if it was fitted with an internal gear hub to really make it live up to it's name... these can be really advantageous in a wetter climate as the drive stays cleaner and with Shimano coming out with an 11 speed IGH I would be looking for bikes fitted with these.

Mind you, my better half gets around Portland really well on a fairly heavy Breezer Uptown with an 8 speed Alfine although I would not use this bike for touring.

personally I love the LHT...I dont own one...yet

Ive just seen how versitile these bikes can be...it is a true utility bike thru and thru

as far as personal experience....my current commuter/ utility bike is a GMC Denali...LOL...my trek 850 is being redone and I needed something else to ride....
The Denali is junk....dont buy one unless you like to wrench on bikes and even then dont buy one....dont get me wrong Im not disappointed in my purchase...
I got what I payed for...

Personal experience will vary from person to person....
The questions are....
Can you wrench on a bike?
Are you anal about adjustments or do you do just enough to get by?
Is the bike stored inside....or outside and never lubed?

The LHT has a rep as being a tank...goes anywhere does anything and with a few mods can become the perfect everyman bike....

but its up to you....its your bike

btw that Brompton P6....ive added that to my list of wants

Doug in sunny iowa

I'd suggest a Surly Cross Check if you are living with only one bike. The LHT is better for regular deliveries of cases of beer with the front loaded down often but if you aren't riding around with tons of groceries all the time the CC is a more pleasant unloaded ride for zipping around. Also you can put some huge tires on the CC if the mood comes over you. One thing it isn't and that's light, but neither is the LHT. If you want light there are other choices but light and touring/utility doesn't figure.

The Trek with it's Gucci rims and carbon fork just doesn't look like the kind of thing I'd be doing lots of grocery runs with front panniers although it looks stunning and light.

I used to ride a Giant OCR, untill I totaled it past Friday. Tomorrow I will be getting my 'new' frame, Cannondale 2.8 from 1996. Whether the 'Dale rides comfy enough for the long term I really don't know.

The Giant OCR was very comfortable to me. I liked it, though we might keep in mind that my distance per ride is 25km and just near the limit of using a backpack.

I'm very highly biased. I'm a delighted 2006 Trek Portland owner. I've also been car-free since April 1999.

The Portland isn't what springs first to most people's minds when thinking of an ideal bike for a car-free rider. And, it probably isn't. But, for those of us who prefer our car-free bikes with drop bars and a bit of spunk, it's damned near perfection.

The Portland doesn't slot into any particular cycling pigeonhole, so it's a hard bike to sell. This makes it tough to find at even the largest, most well-stocked Trek dealerships. IMHO, it's worth seeking out.

The Portland isn't a roadie's road bike. It's 24 pounds (56cm), with much of the excess in the wheels due to the disc brakes. It's not a cyclocross bike. It has a triple and disc brakes. It's not a touring bike. It's not steel, the carbon fork won't carry a rack, and the front geometry is too quick.

These things make it an excellent all-rounder, and as a car-free cyclist, that's exactly what I need--a bike that's maybe not 100% at any one thing, but is 95% at everything.

I like the disc brakes in the rain and snow. I like the triple when on the climb from the grocery store. I like the way the carbon fork takes the sting out of broken city pavement.

I like that the cyclocross-style front end keeps handling pretty quick, yet it's not twitchy on descents. The neutral front-end handling keeps the bike pointed where I want it even if I sneeze, yet makes it easy to flick around potholes, even when they appear in the middle of carving a corner.

I like the touring bike style rear end geometry. It keeps the bike stable and comfortable on the bumps. When loaded with all my commuting gear and a week's worth of groceries, I hardly know the load is there. The bike remains stable, is never tippy, and it pulls away from stoplights just as nice as when it's unloaded.

Yet, join a fast group ride and there's nothing about the Portland that keeps it from taking its pull at the front, or dropping poseurs on carbon wonderbikes. It seems to take special glee when unshackled from its everyday load and running with the pack.

My only beef with the bike are the stock wheels--and even then, only the rear one. In fact, I never had a problem with the front wheel. The low-spoke-count wheels with their paired-spoke lacing sure are pretty. And they're probably perfectly adequate for ordinary commuting and riding.

Clydesdales and car-free people seem to have real difficulty with them. I'm no clyde, but I stress the rear wheel in particular on every grocery run. As a result, it was frequently out-of-true and broke spokes with frustrating regularity--despite two complete rebuilds and a total warranty replacement from Trek. I got only 8,000 miles out of them before I just couldn't get rid of them fast enough.

The solution is a traditional, 32-spoke, 3-cross rear wheel. The Portland's 130mm road bike spacing in the rear makes it hard to find disc brake hubs. I found--and am happy with--the 32-spoke rear disk 130mm road hub from Velocity ($140). My Portland's new wheelset uses that hub with Velocity's VXC disc-specific hoop, held together with double-butted spokes. You could get by with the stock 24-spoke wheel in the front, and just upgrade the rear. But I also wanted a dynamo lighting setup, so I got new wheels at both ends.

The new wheelset has made my Portland into the bike it was meant to be--a bulletproof reliable city commuting speedster that can also haul home insane amounts of groceries. And it still takes pleasure in showing poseurs its rear fender and lovely dynamo taillight.

My Portland, with its new wheelset, it's winter fenders (45mm PlanetBike Cascadia) and studded snow tires, (35mm Nokian Hakkapeliitta W106). In the three-seasons, it wears 28mm road tires and 35mm SKS P-35 fenders.


BTW, especially in a car-free situation, I recommend a rear rack with dual siderails. It's a whole lot easier to mount a trunk bag on top and hang panniers at the same time when they have their own mounting rails.

Take note, Bomburdoo, because there's much to learn here: a lot of careful judgment went into configuring this bike. But this isn't what I'd call a basic setup; for a beginning commuter, it's aspirational. That rack, for instance, looks like a Tubus -- Cosmo, perhaps? Not an impulse buy.

I built a Portland before there was a Portland and am waiting for Trek to send me royalty checks...



Bought a gently used 1999 Trek 7500 and proceeded to strip all the stock parts and build it up into a very capable all rounder... since I don't live in Portland but just like to visit did not see disc brakes as being essential and am really happy with the XTR cantis.

I could echo tsl's comments on his Portland when it comes to performance and versatility, mine is geared a little low for brisk road rides but it really excels when it is pulling large loads and going off road.

Buying a new bike has to be more stressful than anything there is as the choices and options for bikes and gear are pretty much endless... you really have to carefully analyze what you are going to need from a bike and go and test a bunch of different bikes.

How about this for a suggestion: buy an inexpensive but durable used bike for use as a commuter/grocery-getter, then use whatever remaining funds to get yourself another bike that's FUN to ride, but not a practical commuter/grocery-getter?

I had such a used bike handy - a late '80s Peugeot. With fenders, racks, and bullet-proof wheels it probably weighs twice as much as my new road bike. But on level ground, it's really not that much slower.

Good eye, yep. That's a Cosmo. I searched all over at the time for a dual-siderail rack. Now you can get them anywhere. But of course, not in stainless--only the Cosmo is stainless.

Good point too about this bike being aspirational. It was for me. I don't think I could have appreciated it when I first started riding. Nor could I have when I switched from hybrids to road bikes. But when the rider was ready, the bike was right there. I had a list of bullet points I wanted in my next everyday bike, and the Portland hit every single one, and then hit things on the "nice to have" list too. Although I wasn't sure when I first threw a leg over it, I knew from the first mile of the test ride that this bike was mine.

Fortunately, the OP seems to be thinking along the same lines when considering which bikes to replace the crashed Jake.

Achoo makes a good point as well. One bike isn't enough. I'm glad I have my other bikes, for when I leave the Portland at the shop. My other bikes are more roadie road bikes, which makes them fun, but they also increase my appreciation of the Portland on the next workday.

Every now and again I'm thinking about car-free. I always thought I would get a cargo bike, interesting that neither the OP nor anybody else has even suggested that. But I guess it's not practical if it's your only bike.

Having a cargo bike is a good thing...

Cargo bikes are practical if you carry cargo. I'm single, and I live in an apartment. I don't need a bike to haul things home from Home Depot, Costco or Sam's Club. I don't have a need to go to those places. Thus, I have no need for a cargo bike. Pair of grocery panniers and a trunk bag carries all the stuff I need to carry. If it's a good sale that week, I make two trips.

What I'd like to have an excuse for is a trailer.

I am building one. Got a good deal on a frame and will be here in a couple weeks. For me, with kids and a lot of errands that generate loads that I cannot just carry on a regular tourer, the Big Dummy makes sense.

We have horses and sheep. I need something that can haul a bale or 2 of hay and you can tie 50lb feed bags easily.

I can also use it to transport a kid to gymnastics practice six time a week (my daughter and son go on alternate days). I am really looking forward to one. I may not go carless but using less of it is my goal. These bikes are incredibly easy to handle. and just like a good diesel pickup, handles better when loaded.

I totally agree. I am in the same position as the OP, having discovered that the winter has eaten everything of value off my dept. store beast. Now must go shopping and am overwhelmed with choices. So confooooosed! 'Specially when budget and space limit you to one bike. Internal gear hub? single-speed? flat bars? tourer? cyclocross? 29er? auughh! I am paralyzed by information overload.

I'm single, but I tend to do my grocery shopping every two weeks instead of one or two times a week. That makes a cargo bike really useful. Plus, I have a cat, and a pseudo-yard behind my apartment that I want to do a bit of gardening in. Hauling cat food, cat litter, and groceries, not to mention gardening supplies, is tough with just two panniers and a rack trunk.

That said, I don't think I'd want to use a dedicated cargo bike for commuting.

My commuting buddy just bought an LHT and loves it... "Feels like a Cadillac," he says.

Thanks for all the responses! I have a friend who is getting rid of a nice road frame that I can build up, which will give me some versatility to go for a heavy tourer if I want. But I may have to revisit the idea of getting another cross bike for commuting. Plus I still have my 5-speed Schwinn Varsity to tool around the neighborhood on. It's good to have options.

I have the LHT myself. Not the lightest, but its very smooth, and like another poster mentioned it rides like a cadillac. I test rode the the Aurora a few times. Nice bike, but the handling felt fast compared to the LHT. Others mentioned it, but test ride all you can within the touring group. I had an opportunity to test ride the T2, 520, Aurora, and LHT. If you are going carfree you may want to browse that subforum.