If you factor in the time you spend trying to motivate yourself to ride, a nicer bike will definitely cut 5 minutes off your commute time. It will also probably lead to you wanting to ride more. It's easily a justifiable purchase.

I'd have to say that you are giving far too much credit to the Huffy as far as durability goes. I think it'll do just fine but I'm willing to bet something's going to break on it before it would even on a decent road bike.

You say that to all the new bikes

actually no motivation to ride, i now look forward to riding to work and was actually bummed that i couldn't ride today. its addicting!

oh i agree quality is not there, i have to adjust my handlebars every other day and the keep shifting no matter what i do. (any tips on how to correct it)

and thats the thing with my huffy purchase, i knew was low on funds, so i got the cheapest and simplest bike possible. simple=less to break. I have no gears and only a coaster brake. so i just have to worry about the tires, chain, and rear hub. hoping a wrench and grease will keep my cruiser rolling longer than most wally world specials.

My commute is almost 22km one way. With traffic (always bad), traffic lights (seemingly always red) and having to wait for the ferry to cross the river, I doubt I could cut much off of my 1:15 one way commute time no matter what kind of bike I was to ride. For example, I have basically the same overall commute time whether I'm fighting a headwind or enjoying a tailwind on part of my route, because any time I gain/lose as a result of the headwind/tailwind will be made up somewhere else on the commute. I think urban commuting where there is traffic and traffic lights to deal with will always be that way - your time is basically dictated by things beyond your control.

I have a fair amount of Huffy experience. We spend many summer weekends on Ocracoke Island, a place where bikes are the only rental transportation. These fleet rental bikes, many of them Huffys, sit outside in one of the most corrosive salt environments on the planet and receive desultory maintenance. They do fine. I think that the cruisers are good Chinese utility bikes that get painted pretty colors for the American market. In contrast, the mountain bike-shaped objects that Huffy sells seem to disintegrate almost instantly.

Paul

You freakin dummy! NEVER let mere facts and common sense get in the way of buying a new bike!

You need the new bike. Keep the same short morning commute, but 20 minutes is too short for a workout. So find a 20 mile route home on the new bike.

I am not in it for a workout i am in it to enjoy the great outdoors and not give big oil so much of my money.

tell my wife that, but please wait until i am in another room it may get messy.

Your luck hitting lights and wind will be a greater factor than the bike you ride. Something with gears and a better posture will make the trip easier and more enjoyable. It will also get you a bike for something beyond commuting. Look for something you could imagine riding a century or charity ride if you have any interest in that sort of thing...

Get a track bike and learn how to do trackstands so you can impress all the motorists at stoplights.

Really, though, for that distance, you won't see much difference with any bike. A minute or two at best.

I actually enjoy the upright posture, and no gears. its a flat 4 mile commute i would probably just use three gears anyway and the act of picking the right gear will take my mind off any hotties i normally check out waiting for busses. and the extra maintance plus extra thing to break gears wont K.I.S.S

i will say the cruiser posture is anti-productive wind the wind i blowing hard. i hate windy days

i think anything longer than 8 miles i would have gotten a road bike with gears though

I'll tell her...that you told me to tell her that.

Riding a single speed for commuting can be a liberating experience. The tradeoff is that they can be a real bane if you have a bad headwind or are in the mood to take it easy (assuming you are at 65-70 inches). If you are geared lower, you rapidly run out of gear if you are feeling your oats or have a nice tailwind.
Still, the simplicity of a single speed can be joy-inducing.

There are a number of great single speed bikes out there that might offer a little more sporty ride than your current steed. I think a SS cyclocross bike might fit the bill, and you can always put a riser stem and mustache bar on it if you don't wand a drop bar.

A better bike would be more comfortable, versitile and fun, but not appreciably faster on a4 mile commute.

Marc

Who said a 4 mile commute had to involve no more than 4 miles of cycling

I have found myself on more than one occasion, on a pleasant summer afternoon while commuting on my nice road bike, that my 10 mile commute home seems to turn into a 40 or 50 mile loop.

Sounds like your happy with the cruiser so why not keep riding it until you don't enjoy it or you have a little cash saved up for a nice bike. I have a NEXT cruiser I got from my Dad that I ride every now and again. The seat sucks but otherwise it isn't a bad bike.

I'm not going to try and factor in the route you ride with respect to time. However, when picking a particular bike vs. another bike with speed in mind the most critical factor for us non-professionals is the gearing, the second most important factor is the stiffness of the bike; when I say "stiffness" I'm not talking about exotic frame material, simply talking about shocks, which most bikes seem to have at least front shocks nowadays and many have a shock in the seat post. I never get a bike with shocks, robs too much of my performance.

Back to gear ratios. I ride a heavy Raleigh hybrid with bags on it, since I'm also a commuter. However, this bike's biggest gear is 52/11, not going to get that with any huffy and not really worth it to try and upgrade. However, when riding with high gears you need to have the horse power.

However, it's also important to work in higher cadence in lower gears. So another overlooked aspect with respect to speed is the engine turning over the pedals. Don't get too wrapped up in high performance bikes. No shocks, multigearing, with a really big gear in there, and practice. That's the secret to faster rides for us normal joes.

100% true, the ride to work is a non-deviated from path ride. the ride home the detours to hit up small errands and small stores i wouldnt visit if i drove turn it to a 6 mile ride home.

thats the reason i picked the el cheapo bike i did. I dont want gears (shifter, delrailers, cables and all) and dont want shocks (i am not going down a rock hill), all that extra fluff is just more to break and maintain.

Its a bit hard for me to maintain a high cadence, with all the stops on my commute (plus having just one gear).

Good news is you have a short commute. Bad news is, getting a different bike won't make it much shorter due to the nature of urban riding and the relatively short distance your commute covers. Any increase in average cruising speed is easily forfeited waiting at traffic lights.

You could see if you could gear your bike a little higher so you can go faster. But the faster you go, the more you will appreciate a more aerodynamic position on the bike as wind resistance increases dramatically. So next you may wish to consider the kind of handlebars on your cruiser. By that time, you're putting lipstick on a pig to dress her up. For lots of stop and go urban riding, I recommend singlespeed freewheel bikes for simplicity and speed. I ride three different singlespeed bikes for my 20 km commute (one way) for that reason. Hills and traffic lights. One of the bikes has narrow flat bars and short bar ends. The other two have drop bars.

Not saying that it's the greatest but I've been using my Huffy Black Widow almost daily for the past 11 months and it's still going strong. I bought it because it was cheap ($140), has dual disc brakes (wanted to see how well they dealt with slush, snow and general winter street crud) and I wanted to compare it to more expensive bikes out in the real world. It has cheap components but it's functional, has been reliable and I'm truly impressed with what I got for my money. YMMV.

I always use lights to practice my accelerations -- good for redlining. However, if there are just way too many lights, you may want to get a map and look for a different route. When I lived in South Carolina I had a bike commute of about 9 miles, but about 3 miles of it was on a very narrow two-lane road with a lot of 18-wheel truck traffic going at over 55 mph; on more than one occasion I had to jump off the road (thanks to my mirror). I found a new route, it was 16 miles, but much nicer roads.