Thinking of upgrading to a better commuter bike
 

I am currently riding a specialized sirrus sport. I ride this bike everyday and I love it, except when guys on road bikes whip right past me. My gps says that my average riding speed is 14 mph and thats in the hilly terrain of central MA. I was contemplating making my bike faster or just upgrading to a road bike. I generally ride 15-20 miles a day and was thinking of commuting to work which is 15miles each way. Of course that was before this terrible stretch of flats, 5 flats in 2 weeks.

I have a couple of different bikes I use for getting to work including a road bike. It's true, on the road bike fewer people whip by me but what is also true is that ultimately it doesn't make my commute significantly faster. Maybe 5 minutes. Your commute would be much longer than mine though so you'll probably notice more of a time benefit by switching to a road bike.

As far as flats go, the other thing I've noticed is that stock tires tend not to have much flat protection so I'd plan on new tires whether you keep your existing bike or get another one.

How about a cross bike? A road bike with fat tires.
My Redline Metro has 700x32 tires. It took me 500 miles on to have a flat.

I am exactly 5 minutes faster (on a 10mi. one way) on my drop bar road racer than on my flatbar commuters. Fenders, racks and panniers have no place on a full assault road racer. But fenders, racks and panniers are useful things for a commuting cyclist. So... if you aren't already commuting on the Sirrus, what are you waiting for? You've got the perfect platform to hang racks, fenders, lights, etc. from. If you want to bend over and go fast now and then, pick up a used road racer somewhere and ride it for fun or even use it for the commute on dry days when the weather is decent.

H

Expect, you won't see those roadies on the road, when theres snow and ice on the ground, .. blowing by you so fast. .

I'm all for road bikes and N+1.

Bear in mind that the bike won't make you significantly faster. Marginally faster is all you can expect out of a new bike. The rest is in your legs and lungs.

All I own are roadies. The other night on the commute home, I couldn't catch a kid on an MTB wearing flip-flops for heaven's sake. He was trying to catch a guy on a time trial bike--and was slowly succeeding. He turned off before either I could catch him or he could catch the TT bike.

Stuff like that keeps me humble, and it's something to keep in mind with your new bike. It can only work with what you give it.

I'll disagree on that. I have 3 road bikes and an old Trek 7000 mtb that I use as a commuter. There is no way I go as fast on the Trek. It has 26x1.4 slicks on it, and with a rack and bag it just feels like a slug.

Try wearing flip-flops. ;)

This is the absolute truth. ^^^^^^^

When I was in NYC this spring I delighted in keeping pace with carbon fiber racing bikes in Central Park on my relatively cheap folder.

But, that said, a better bike will make a difference- on hills, for quick starts and over the course of a long ride of more than an hour.

For your 15 mile commute a lighter set of wheels and a tighter, lighter frame geometry will probably make your ride even faster- if you work harder on your ride.

This is one of several recent threads in commuting where riders seem to have an expectation of the bike making improvements to their ride that might be more readily accomplished by the rider working on their legs and lungs.

It's kind of like a musical instrument- yeah, a great Martin guitar will sound better than some cheap off the shelf guitar but you've got to learn to play it.

It could very well be that you've "earned" yourself a new bike- in other words you've wrung the most out of the bike you're riding and have achieved a level of fitness that you feel justifies an upgrade- in which case, go for it!

i love my whole stable, but for commuting i switch between a singlecross and 1x9'cross build depending on my mood that day.

commute is 10mi and with my 2x10 roadie wearing 23's (as opposed to 32's) i only saved 6min according to the computer.

woah this thread blew up and it didnt even notify me. I am still brand new to the forum world but I am enjoying it so far. As far as my current set up on my bike, i have added fenders and a rear rack as well as bar ends. I really enjoy commuting anywhere under 15 miles on it ( the gym is 6miles each way which is perfect) but anything over that I just feel like it would be good to have a bike with drop bars. My friend has a cross bike and swears by it.

I have a roadie, and just bought a cross bike (2012 Kona Jake). Haven't commuted on my roadie yet, but definitely enjoy the Jake and the fatter (but not slow fat) tires. As for my roadie making me faster, yeah, maybe, but like others have said, it's more about your legs and lungs :)

Sounds like your Sirrus is becoming your de facto commuter, with the addition of fenders and a rack ... and that's great. Use it as your commuter/trainer and when you get on a roadie or cross bike you'll feel super fast ;)

Use the Cirrus as a commuter for now- get something else to use for training rides, maybe even join a club (Nashoba Valley Pedalers, Seven Hills Wheelmen, etc). Riding with people just above your level will push you to get faster. Then you may outgrow the Cirrus, if you really think it is holding you back. My guess is that it will become your bad weather bike, and you will wind up with a stable of bikes.

I have thought about riding with those groups but once again I dont want to be the one holding us up because Im riding a hybrid... I feel that I could hang with those guys if I had a road or a cross bike.

It isn't the bike, it is the motor, and most of the groups send out smaller numbers of riders based on speed. My wife rode a Sirrus for 5 years, and was fine on Charles River Wheelmen rides. The Madone she has now fits her better and she is faster now, but it isn't all because of the bike. She pushes herself harder now. Maybe it is just more comfortable- the CF frame certainly soaks up more of the road buzz than the aluminum frame of the Sirrus.

You could maybe fit a pair of aero bars on the bike. I've had em' on my hybrid for over 20yrs. It gives me a nice cruising position when I need it, and is helpful against a headwind. As for the blow-outs. Spend an extra $20 or $30 on a good tire. I ride on Armadillo Nimbus'. I get over 5k on them and I'm lucky to get two flats. IMO, good commuting tire.

I disagree. If the bike didn't matter why aren't more tour de France riders on hybrids? BECAUSE they are slower. I commute with an aluminum hybrid and with a titanium road bike. Big difference with the road bike. To the point where I commute with the road bike when dry and use the hybrid in wet conditions. And I am considering dropping the hybrid from the stable.

The motor is important but the bike makes a big difference too. Saying otherwise is shear B.S.

demoncyclist is right and you are playing semantics games. I have humiliated guys on carbon road bikes with my humble steel commuter sitting nearly bolt upright. Not often, but often enough. Your example of a Tour de France peleton is ridiculous because all those riders are supremely talented. Put them on hybrids and they would destroy the average commuter even if s/he was riding the most advanced racing bike produced. The bike only makes a difference when it is the only difference between two otherwise evenly matched riders.

But that's why it isn't just the motor. Bikes DO make a difference. All other things equal, such as the same rider, you will be able to ride a road bike faster than a MTB or hybrid. I know I can, it isn't even close. Sure, I've kept up with some roadies on my MTB, but only for a little while and then I'm spent. I can ride all day with them on my own road bike.

Demon, you say it isn't the bike, but it IS the bike based on your own description. You say she "pushes herself harder", but that's because she can, because of the bike.

This isn't to say the motor doesn't make a difference. It make a HUGE difference, but don't discount the bike.

So the same guy wants to switch to a new bike. I'd say it's a perfecty evenly matched rider.

+1.

I've read that aerodynamics don't really affect you speed wise until you reach 18+mph. So if you're average is 14 - work on the motor.

With that said. Absolutely nothing wrong with N+1. The more bikes, the merrier IMO.

Used to commute on a Sirrus like you, and my average over 11 miles was usually around 17-17.5 mph (including stops and lights). Now that I'm on a geek'd out rode bike, my average is usually around 19, and on days I push it, just breaking 20mph. So, yes, it's probably marginally faster - and you might get an increase, but not much until you start riding a bit harder.

well if you make a really big aerodynamic Jump to sitting Inside a Velomobile, rather than a DF bike,

then you get a Much slipperier rig.

read of someone on MV delighting in riding past the decked out roadies..

A funny story, and well told. I'm no kid but am still just about at the flip-flops stage of clothing since I started bike commuting in early July of this year - casual cotton shorts with boxers underneath, cotton tee shirts, regular sneakers, no helmet, etc. I haven't spent a penny on bike-specific clothing ever in my life...but I did finally buy a helmet recently.

BUT....just to add fuel to the fire, I started commuting on a cheap bike I bought in 2005 that was hanging in my garage under an inch of dust. It still has the original tires on it! It's a full-suspension Mongoose. I don't have a way to accurately weigh it but it's heavy and slow on pavement.

Last week I bought what I believe to be a 1993 Raleigh MT-400 mountain bike with no suspension. Again, I can't weigh this one, and I also don't have a speedometer on my bike or a high-tech telephone or GPS thingamabob, so I don't know how fast it goes, but this bike is a ROCKETSHIP compared to the Mongoose.

I would choose (and did this weekend) the Mongoose for serious off-roading, partly for the suspension and partly because the frame is smaller so it's easier to control on single-track trails and bumps and jumps, but the Raleigh is a screamer on the pavement, by comparison, even with old, mismatched knobby tires.

Perhaps I've gone far afield of what the original poster wanted to discuss, but in my very limited experience, a different bike CAN make a huge difference, IF you're starting from rock bottom to begin with like me.

At some point, I imagine you encounter the Law Of Diminishing Returns as you spend more and more on a bicycle.

Either way, all this bike stuff sure is fun. I've been commuting for a little over a month and feel like a little kid again.

I think that's the essence of the "Its not the bike it's the motor" argument. At some level it just won't matter if you've taken a pound off a bike. I can ride my old steel downtube roadie as fast as I can ride my carbon fiber one. There's about a 4-5 pound difference. But both are all out roadies from their respective eras, except the carbon climbs better.