It's especially true for someone starting out as a bike commuter. He/she won't know what kind of bike is best for him. (Forgive me, but I can't keep up the him/her thing.) So start on anything. Then you'll know if you want a racing bike, a cargo bike, a folding bike, whatever.

Some bikes are close to ideal for some people and some conditions. Some are not. But a bike is a device for getting from one place to another, and a bike will do that, if it runs. Coming back from the other place to the first one is rarely much harder, so the same bike can perform that function, too. Once you've gone out and back, you've commuted. There: you're on a commuting bike.

I whole-heartedly agree with you that "The upgrades and customization will enhance your commute much more." I had never given that aspect of it much thought.

Thanks!

For most people, yes, any bike will do, there won't be any special affection for one over another; it'll be a "tool of choice".

For others, like me, there are special needs/circumstances that require a bit more refinement in choice.

Being 6'1" isn't extraordinary, but I have long arms & legs, and this means I have to look art the bigger range of frame sizes -- not even an option for a big-box-store bike. I have back issues that preclude using rigid or hardtail bikes. Full suspension is necessary. Not having tried the Cane Creek Thudbuster suspension post, that'd be about the ONLY alternative I'd have left (and at $150+ for the thing, not a casual tryout); suspension posts in hardtails has not been something I can do long-term.

I also ride hard and get a little silly; I've cracked 3 MTB frames in a decade, not even doing extreme stuff -- it's just a combination of my size, my riding habits, and a hit-or-miss experience in quality.

So for ME, no -- not just any bike will do as a commuter.

For short city commutes, where potholes rule the day, then hybrids are more ideal for commuting. Road bikes work best when they have cross lever brakes and the roads are consistently well-paved. IMO, hybrids and tourers make the best universal commuters, because most can be equipped with both rack and fenders.

Any bike will do. I have a friend who commutes 10km everyday on a unicycle. (I'll post pics the next time I see him). He even takes it onto the lakeside trail I will only attempt on my former MTB. It really comes down to what you enjoy riding rather than what is practical.

I would say that the bike must be of sufficient quality to be maintainable. Most sub-$100 BSOs have a significant number of parts made from sheet metal, including brakes, levers, derailleurs, and hangars. Assembly is often sub-standard, sometimes stripping threads that were low quality to begin with. These bikes are simply not maintainable, and will have very short lifetimes when pressed into everyday duty.

yes both bikes easily handle regular 25km RT commutes:

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Thinking back thirty years, my first commuter was a beat up 7 ?? speed (5 speed??), 26" tires, no name brand "mountain-type bike"; drop bars from somewhere mounted upside-down. I don't even recall where it came from.

I stll recall how much I enjoyed riding the four miles into work on that bike. Even brung it when I moved to Texas, where it served for a 20 mile round-trip commute (I was young and fit then, and back then I think we had fewer options and fewer expectations when it came to bikes).

Shortly thereafter (1984??) I bought a Schwinn Passage for that same commute, and likely got in the best shape of my life on it. And given the comments on forums about that bike, I wish I still had it, but I gave it away to a friend when leaving. I still kept that old beater tho', I was fond of it.

Finally gave it away to a friend some years back who worked at the airport and had to transition between hangars a lot, he gave it back eventually, and I believe we donated it to charity. Wish I still had that bike too.

Mike

Well for me a road bike is ideal, or at least the road bike I have is the most ideal out of the 2 bikes I own. My RT is 31 miles. I tried it once on my MTB and even with a rigid fork and street tires, it was just *meh* compared to using my road bike. I'm still pretty slow but the road bike just feels more efficient.

And I ride on some pretty bad roads, also. Road bike with alum frame, carbon fork, and 25c tires handles it just fine.

Thinking some more, if you want to see every sort of commuter bike under the sun, just roam any big college campus and peruse the bike racks. That first commuting bike I recall so fondly was actually just a typical campus generic parts bike of that era.

It seems we do expect more of our bikes now in terms of category and function, but I'd guess you can still find everything under the sun on campus.

What makes a commuter car? What are the qualities one looks for in a 4-wheeled, powered vehicle to get from one's residence to one's place of work? I know a guy who's daily driver is an _old_ MG convertible. A friend's dad drove a Dodge Viper in the summer in the summer and a Jeep in the winter. A former co-worker had a Shelby-clone kit car that he drove on nice summer days, another co-worker's only car was a Lotus, and a California surfer-dude I knew drove a F-350 diesel, but had plans to upgrade to a Mercedes. My wife loves her Toyota Echo, and I'll probably have to go find another one if this one ever dies. An old friend has traded in a car about every 18 months for the past 10 years, I have no clue what he's driving now, last I knew he went from little sports car to mid-size pick-up. I'm rolling over 210K on the Subaru I bought new 2 years out of college.

So, I ask you, will any car do for driving to work? How do you choose the car you use to drive to work?

It is not true that any bike would work for _me_ to commute on. My current commuter is somewhat modified from when I first started using it to get to work, and very heavily modified from when it first left the retail floor. Most bikes I _could_ get to work on, but I would start modifying (or completely overhauling) many of them immediately, and the rest would get at least some tweaking.

I've seen a lot of nonfunctional bikes that serve as a commuting bike. That includes the guy who came to the coop without bearings on one side his front wheel and a locked front axle which he had been using to get back and forth to work for a year. The axle turned in the dropout and wore off the threads. The bearings weren't worn out but had been removed prior to his buying the bike. Once we replaced the bearings and the axle, his speed jumped to near the speed of sound after all that resistance training;)

And, yes, any bike can be used for commuting. I've used road bikes, cross bikes, touring bikes, cruisers, hardtail mountain bikes (knobby equipped), soft tail mountain bikes (knobby equipped), full dually mountain bikes (also knobby equipped), and even tandems as commuter bikes. I even have a neighbor who rides an ordinary from the Denver Highlands to Downtown and back...a drop (and rise) of about 1000 feet.

There's two competing issues here: What bikes work for commuting. What rationalization/justification do you have for spending a lot of money on the bike you want.

Both are equally true. Any bike at all will work and yes it is imperative that you spend $4000 on a titanium road bike to be able to go to work. (insert whatever grabs your fancy in place of the titanium road bike)

Well hey, with the OTHER forms of wheeled commuting vehicles out there, $4,000 doesn't even get you in the front door.

Lately I've been heavily into reenacting, for the price of my flintlock smoothbore alone I coulda had a Surly LHT, and I have a cheap one.

Mike

For me personally, no.

If I have to (flat on the road bike) or need to (rain) ride a more difficult or less fun bike, sure, you do what you need to do. BUT, with that said, my mountain bike with slicks doesn't even compare to my Miele road bike. It's not even a night and day difference. It's a world of difference between the two and I wouldn't have it any other way!

It beats walking.

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This is generally true. However, some cities have unbelievably bad streets riddled with potholes. IMO, wide knobby tires do better over unkempt partially paved streets. Most hybrid frames can more easily accept these types of tires. Cities like Detroit, New York, Chicago, and Cleveland are hybrid commuting cities! :D

The typical Nor Cal road race is on far worse pavement than the roughest city street in Sacramento so I am pretty sure my delicate china tea cup of a CF road bike can handle the ride to the office.

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Agreed!

Your CF "tea cup" of a road bike can handle practically anything. However, those skinny road bike tires just might not make it to downtown Detriot! :D

I've seen the whole range of bikes in the rack at work. Old mountain bikes, road bikes, newer big box store bikes, comfort bikes, a few IGH hybrids like mine, regular hybrids, a triathlon/time trial bike that gets ridden with flip-flops and basketball shorts... and yes, a few years ago there was a unicycle. Which was showboating. If ever there was a machine that you could take inside and tuck under your desk, a unicycle would be it.
Of all of these, I suppose the time trial bike is the least commute-worthy, but it works for the guy who rides it. He used to do triathlons, had the bike, and decided it would do as well as any other for pedalling to work on.

Do any of these cities do the infamous gravel "patch" that Saskatoon does? I never saw this strange idea of road repair before moving to Saskatchewan. The idea is, they dig up the pavement around a pothole/s, toss a pile of gravel down, then many weeks or months later, come back and actually pave it. I think the idea is to use people's personal vehicles as tamping machines. A bike is often the best way to travel on roads that have a lot of these, because you can carefully skirt the edges.
I'd say hybrids, mountain bikes, and cyclocross bikes are most popular here. I see more 'cross bikes than road bikes used for everyday travel.

For me, I found my ideal commuter a short time ago. I used to ride my hardtail MTB with slick tires but invested in an old Mercier road bike I found in a 'vide grenier' (fleamarket) a few weeks ago. I paid EUR 50 for it and it beats my fancy MTB for my 6+ Km commute. It has holes for fenders and racks but luckily, I work for a company that has bike parks and shower rooms, so I only carry a change of clothes in a small backpack and shower before going to my desk.

I have probably spent over EUR 100 on it, but still it's a very inexpensive option. I intend to keep upgrading it, but want to keep it especially because it's not a 'desireable' bike, so I feel comfortable riding it around town.

Adding to what everyone in this awesome thread is saying, I'll say this.

Will any bike do? You're flingin flangin right it will. Wheels and pedals, all you need. (Handlebars help too, but lets not split hairs)

HOWEVER.....

Based on my experience, I would say once you get that bike, go ahead and make modifications and what not to suit what YOU like. I had a trail bike I was using to get here and there. It was awesome, but then I started looking into purpose built commuter bikes. They all were pretty much same concept as my bike, but no shocks, and single speed. I don't want single speed. Other people might, but I'm not those people. So I thought, why don't I just make Mindy into what I want. So between this and training for my century, and with some help from the owner and really hot girl at the LBS, I customized my trail bike into a commuter bike.

I didn't like trail tires, so we put on road slick high pressure tires, made for just such a thing. I like taking my bike some places it wasn't intended to go, so I like having the spring in the middle and I really like the frame and its shape more so than the commuter bikes, so we left that, but adjusted the tension for not riding on trails. The factory saddle was made for fun rides and not being in it for hours on end. Swapped that out for a more comfy saddle purpose built. My shifters weren't intended to shift back and forth so rapidly... off they went, and more heavy duty shifters went on (I like grip shifters, back off). So those things, and a lot of subtle adjustments to crucial points... boom. I had a commuter bike customized to MY needs.

Long story short, yes... use whatever bike you want, but know that you don't have to, and probably shouldn't, ride it how it came off the proverbial assembly line. Make your bike your own. You'll be together for a lot of hours a day, make it comfy.