I would just like to say, my commute sucks. It's not very long (6mi one way), so it's not an issue of being a "difficult" commute at all, but it's more an issue of quality. ROAD quality. I am in the Navy and I live about a mile from the base (Naval Station Norfolk, if anyone is familiar). Between my house and the gate, I can wind through smooth residential streets away from traffic (which is horrible here). Once I'm actually on the base, the next five miles is a completely different story.

Now I don't know if any of you are in the military, or ever have been, but there's this certain element of cheapskated-ness to anything run by the federal government ( ), and that extends to the roads on base. These things look like a torn-up patchwork quilt of asphalt and concrete, paved by a blind man with Parkinson's! My commuter bike is a 1987 Schwinn World Sport with 27x1-1/4" tires, and by the end of my ride, I am exhausted- not from fighting the bi-directional headwind that is always present, but more from the jarring potholes, bumps, and breaks in the road that make my ride feel like a barely-controlled five mile collision! There has been more than one instance when a pothole has nearly knocked me off course and slammed me broadside into a car. There are a couple stretches of road that actually have a designated bike path (maybe 500yards total on the entire base ), but those are usually so covered in sand, gravel, and debris that it's a death wish to even look at them the wrong way.

I won't even mention the drivers on base. Well, maybe I will. There's something about 90% of people in the military that I guess comes along with the attitude of many in the service. For some reason, so many people on base drive way too fast and aggressive, and thanks to that I'm only one pothole away from becoming a two-wheeled human pinball in the middle of a giant moving game of SUV Plinko!

That being said, I love being stuck at a light next to Joe D.Ouche in his Mustang GT blasting the latest Eminem track. When he peels out, floors it to 60mph, and immediately slams on the brake and hits the first right into the gas station, I roll on by, with my steel steed clanking and creaking over the swiss cheese asphalt I've grown to love, and revel in the fact that the only fuel I need for my ride is a banana and some extra water when I get home.

That is all.

Can you run fatter tires at lower pressure on that frame? If not I think you would benefit from a more appropriate bike, something like a Surly Crosscheck on 700x40 tires. Life is just too short to deprive yourself of a pleasant commuting experience due to riding the wrong sort of bike for the conditions.

Sounds like a mountain bike with at least a front suspension fork, along with a set of fat gnarly slicks is in order. Due to the road conditions, the overall speed/commute time differences between the two bikes should very little.

Ditto on the fatter tire bike. With decent slicks they are not much slower but when it comes to potholes and road debris they are a whole lot safer and nicer to ride on.

The military can be a bit spastic about spending money. They will penny pinch things to death that should probably just be done right, then on the other hand toss hundreds of millions down a hole without so much as a second thought......

https://www.businessinsider.com/two-n...rapyard-2011-7

I guess it's weird but I have the complete opposite experience. I work on the navy base here at Pearl Harbor for my part-time job nights and weekends. The streets outside the gates on my way in are the normal city streets, all beat to hell with glass and potholes everywhere. But when I go in pass the guards the streets on base are like butter. I think they just repaved the entry area but even when you get past that onto the older streets they are all really nice as well. There's hardly any debris too, just a little gravel along the side but no glass or anything. The drivers are the same though. Really aggressive and oblivious. Everyone seems to have fast cars too... alot of mustangs, camaros and also alot of fast imports like wrx sti's and evo's and stuff. Oh, and the crotch rocket guys are bad too. I think they enjoy gunning it when they pass me for some reason...

They are real hit of miss that way. Some bases are very nice and some look like ghettos. I think it has somewhat to do with the number of VIPs that visit and the local Congressmen's clout.
A buddy worked here painting all the military housing on NAS Whidbey a few years back. Cost a ton of money but they did a great job and it took over a year to finish them all. 6 months later the military pulled off and replaced all the freshly painted siding???

First, thanks for your service. Ex-NAVY myself.

I think the ultimate answer is gonna have to be a different bike/wheel combination. More relaxed geometry combined with wider, softer commute tires is in order. Yes, you might squeeze in a fatter tire on your Schwinn. And it would still have the same tight geometry. The tires would help but strike me as only half way their.
I generally suggest a cyclocross design of some sort, or one of the cafe bikes, with drop bar ends added. I like the Jamis 'Coda' or Motobecane 'Cafe Noir', to name just two of this sort.

These will accept tires in the 28-32mm range and have a slightly longer frame, often of steel. This makes them more forgiving over rough terrain. And who can refuse owning one more bike?

I have rode on base before, but I did it with a front suspension mountain bike and 26x1.75 tires. The fork helped a lot because the roads were so torn up. I didn't like riding on the narrow roads there, but bicycling meant that I would ride about 500 ft to work from the barracks; walking meant walking about 2/3 mi because that stretch of road was fenced on both sides. Only vehicles were allowed to travel judging by the signs explicitly prohibiting pedestrians. The road was too narrow to allow pedestrians and vehicles to use at the same time anyway. That is the reason pretty much everyone in my unit drove to work.

The only issue was that there were no written regulations about bikes in barracks and everyone had their own idea on whether or not I could keep it inside. There were no bike racks anywhere near the barracks.

I would like to thank the members of BF for shifting my focus from venting about my lousy commute to justifying why I need another bike

I've actually been on the lookout for a rigid frame MTB or cheap commuter a-la the Surly Crosscheck. The Schwinn won't accept a fatter tire than is already on there, and the geometry is tight. The bike fits me great, but I think a little longer wheelbase would be more comfortable. Larger tires are definitely a necessity but rolling resistance is a concern, as I still like to ride fast when I have the opportunity.

I see used Specialized Hardrocks all the time on Craigslist, would one of these make a good base for a commuter? I like the idea of building up a beater conversion rather than buying a new bike, since I will be locking it up against a bunch of rust buckets. I'm pretty competent mechanically and would prefer to do some wrenching myself rather than buying a commuter-ready bike.

Thanks for the input guys, I'm sure my wife will appreciate me buying another bike, at least I can blame this one on BF. "They told me to..."

I have a Hard Rock I got for $15 at the thrift store. It makes a great conversion if you get the right frame size. Mine is pretty much original.
I put a mild tread city tire from WalMart on the front, and left the stock Specialized knobby on the back. This combination can dish it out.
I added a rear rack and some lights, too. It makes a nice kicker and for 6 miles, it would be a done deal for me.
I ride mine that far in a minute.

OP: I am in the Air Force and ride 5 miles to Langley AFB. The roads on base are fine for me. The drivers are what irritate me. No one shares the road, and a lot of the motorists on base are jerks. Case in point, I was riding to work Monday and there's a motorist in the same lane as me to my left. I look at the motorist and she waves me over. I start to change lanes to the left and then she has the nerve to roll down her windows and scream at the top of her lungs, "USE YOUR HAND SIGNALS!" Normally I do use my hand signals, but she waved me over. It took everything inside of me that is good to not give her a one finger salute. Oh well. As far as your steed goes, I have a Trek 7.5FX that I converted to drop bars and bar end shifters and it works great for me. The 700x32 Bontrager Hardcase tires do the job, but they might need to go in the winter. I would suggest a used hybrid with relaxed geometry. Good luck!

When I was stationed at Norfolk Navy Base in the late 70's I used to bike commute from Virginia Beach. I recall that the roads on base were fine then. Maybe that was the last time that they paved them!

-Gary

I bet it was, but any places they did repair, they insisted on paving 2" higher than the surrounding asphalt!

Anyone have experience with a Diamondback Sorrento? Found a pretty nice one on Craigslist I might snag. I believe its around a 97 or 98 model, so if I'm not mistaken that's pre-WalMart days for DB... The bike looks pretty nice, there is no major rust and it has rear fender tabs, would probably make a good conversion with some fat slicks and lights/rack/etc. My only hesitation is that it has the twist-grip shifters, which I have never used. How hard would it be to swap the bars out, say to some drop bars, and then change the shifters over to bar ends or possibly brifters? Do deraileurs designed for a twist-grip shift work with other types of shifters? From what I read, it has the Shimano AceraX group. Either way, it looks like it might be a pretty good candidate for what I need. I'll probably post a separate thread for info on this bike.

Thanks again for the input guys, you have successfully convinced me to buy another bike.

dbrown417 has an excellent point: I've commuted on Norfolk Naval Base, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Washington Navy Yard, Camp Victory (Iraq), Pearl Harbor Naval Base (and shipyard), NSA Norfolk, NPS Monterey (the years are adding up here), and NOB does suck pretty bad.

In another view, I've ridden 7 triathlon courses (Pacific Grove many times, Tinley x2, Wildflower, Escape from Alcatraz, Santa Cruz Sentinel, UVAS resevoir Morgan Hill, and Treasure Island). Treasure Island was by far the worst due to the patchwork surface. In fact, it was the only bad ride I had in California. For those outside the Navy family, Treasure Island was a Navy base from just before WWII to the mid-90's.