For the last few years, I've been riding about 5000-6000 miles a year back and forth to work. The only problem is that I'm a teacher so I have no "work" to ride to during the summer. This year, however, I've vowed to keep up with my riding all summer.

So I've been reduced to something called "training rides."

Three times now, I've gone out on my bike absent any large bag attached to the rear triangle. Man, does it feel unsafe without all that added weight for stability. And I've only worn clothing purchased at bike shops. I even wore gloves.

Now, I've still kept a few of my old commuter habits. I made sure I stuffed a small lock into my seat pack, along with bus fare, a train ticket, and my Costco card.

I also ride a Surly Crosscheck (the purchase of which signaled the end of my roadie lifestyle and entry into full time commuting). But I don't own a real road bike except for a fleet of fixed gears that once were road bikes, so the Surly will have to do. I guess it's a road bike since no one I know who has one ever uses it to race cross.

Finally, though, as I was about 30 miles into my 38 mile out and back, I looked down at my front hub and there it was. My Zipp 217 hub had, in the middle of it, a small piece of carbon fiber. OMG! I could not believe it. Wasn't I the guy who used to boast "I don't allow carbon fiber on my property!"

Good Lord! What have I become?

As long as you wear a reflective vest while shaving your legs you've not completely turned. At least that's what I've told myself.

Today it's going out without panniers. Tomorrow it'll be titanium bolts, shaved legs, carbon fiber, and Spandex on the commute.

Go ahead, embrace it. L)

Whenever I take off on a ride without my backpack, I feel naked. Well, once I was, but I had been drinking.

Kidding aside, I know what you mean. Sometimes fitness can become addicting.

I'm also a teacher and have the summer off ... and I spent the first 34 days this year touring the Mississippi river (all of it). Touring is a good alternative to being a roadie IMHO. You can also do brevets - brevet riders aren't roadies either. The Crosscheck can be set up pretty easily as a tourer or a brevet bike. And let us not forget you can also do cycle cross on a cross check (oddly enough) and cycle cross riders are certainty not roadies. So there are lots of bicycle riding alternatives to commuting that do not involve morphing into a roadie.

I think it's the ultimate brevet bike.

Totally off topic, but Enquiring minds want to know: if you live in Davis and are doing 6kmiles/yr going to work and back, where do you teach? West Sac, Woodland or Dixon?

You're not a true roadie until you eat one of your own here on BF.

Embrace your roadness.

If I had the summers off, I would go on a bike tour. That's the ultimate commuter trip.

It's all good. I teach and bike commute every day. On weekends I sometimes do organized rides. I've done 3 double centuries this year. My wife and I are doing a cycling tour in Montana this summer, and I just competed in my first race.
Embrace your many cycling selves.

W. Sac.

You know you can be both.. Roadie during the summer. A commuter the rest of the year.. Both can compliment one another.

+1

There are lots of ways to enjoy cycling. Why limit ourselves to just commuting? This weekend I'm going on a 35 mile ride to watch a couple of pro races that are part of a community festival. In the group I'm riding with there will be commuters, mtn bike racers, roadies, cross racers, triathletes and people who just like to ride road bikes. A lot of the people fit into multiple categories.

When the races are over, the return ride will me made up of slightly drunk roadies, mtn bike racers, cross racers, etc and hopefully some sober people.

Personally I'm going more for the ride, the camaraderie, and because I like that town more than to watch the races, which I honestly I could skip altogether and still enjoy myself.

I commute weekdays and roadie on the weekend. It's all one of a kind. The way I look at it, if I have a destination while on my roadie, then I consider tha it as a commute. Same goal but different tool for the job.

When I do get on my roadie bike, sometime I turn around to check my rack and pannier. The load and the weight difference gives me a false sense of something is missing or fallen off back my bike.

I road ride, but don't consider myself a roadie, because I still wave and say hi when passing others.

I have two sets of wheels for my Cross Check, the mtb-ish rims and hubs and 32mm cross tires and another set borrowed from one of my road bikes, the difference is night and day and the bike looks fine with the "skinny" tires and goes like stink also.

anybody say resistance is futile yet?

Labels are silly. IMHO
I have met decent riders from all facets of cycling. There are also jerks in each one.