I wonder if a road bike can be effectively used as a commuter bike. I love biking and enjoy taking my bike to bike trails and for long distance rides. However, I primary need right now is commuting between school and home (a total of 2 miles one way or 4-5 miles in total). In my town the pavement is generally broken (uneven); there may be some holes too; and there are one or two hills that I have to climb before reaching my destination. I wonder if a road bike could do the job.

I am in the process of purchasing a bike and I want to decide between a road bike and a hybrid. I have realized that it's a bit difficult to define a "hybrid" bike. My question is whether a road bike may be modified to become a hybrid for urban commuting. That way I can use it as a commuter and when I am riding it on long distance trips I can put it back to the original shape: making it again a road bike.

I had an old Windsor a couple of years ago. It was road bike and I rode it to commute to school. I can't say it gave me the smoothest ride. Specially the handle bars made it difficult to ride when I had a backpack on my shoulders. I sold the bike last year hoping that I can buy something more comfortable. But now I wonder if I could have just modified it and turned it into a hybrid for domestic use and then also used it as a road bike when I wanted to bike between cities.

The limiting factor on some road bikes is the inability to fit a rack (without requiring special adapters) or wider tires and/or fenders. If you want most of road bike but without those limitations, look for a cyclocross bike. If those limitations aren't a put off, get a road bike. Basically anything will do for a 2 mile ride.

yeah road bike should do i use mine as a commuter my schools at least 4 miles ways and it holds up just fine in broken pavment

+1 on cyclocross bike

A road bike would also work fine. Check out the commuting forum, plenty of commuters use a road bike.

With a ride that short, why not just get a cheap MTB (or whatever you can find) on craigslist or something and make the road bike a separate decision?

I've been commuting on my Trek 1000 for 4 years now. You can get a great workout in, but I think you'll have to stretch out your rides. I live 3 miles from where I work (until my job moves to Kennesaw in July), but I commonly stretch my ride to 10 to 13 miles each way. I keep clothes to change into at work.

What bike you have won't matter that much on a short commute, but consider whether you want to use it for longer recreational rides. A road bike will be fine and while it doesn't have the option of attaching panniers, you can always use backpacks which have served me well over the years.

+1

since your commute is so short just try to think about what else you'd use the bike for and buy according to that thought process.
any road, triathlon, cyclocross, mountain or hybrid bike would be just fine for 2 mile trips on bumpy pavement.
but if you plan on doing group rides, off road riding, triathlons, cycloss races, or whatever in the distant future then buy according to those plans.


personally, if my commute was only 2 miles (instead of 28 round trip) i'd find a bike on craigslist that: is roughly my size, has hybrid tires, has fenders front and rear, has paniers or the ability to add them in the future, and is under $100. shouldn't be too hard to find.

This notion that you need a new bike every time the road surface changes is marketing hooey. You can ride a road bike off road, a mtb bike on the road, tour with a cyclocross, do whatever you want.

Just swap out the tires for $40 and you'll be on your way. No big deal.

btw, ever heard of Paris-Roubaix?

Yep. Since I drive my clothes to and from work Mon/Wed/Fri, I don't need a rack when I ride to work Tue/Thu. This is for a 20 mile hilly commute (one way). When I move closer to work, I will probably switch to my mountain bike just because I can put a rack on it and ride every day.

Also, depending on how much you have to carry, a backpack may negate the need for a rack.

Or a messenger bag. I commute daily, and although I have several bikes, they range from a mtb to a full carbon road bike, and they've all been used as commuters. I use a Chrome Citizen bag, and carry everything including laptops with no issue. (and no racks)

+1

I ride 16 miles to/from work and a road bike is the only thing I'll ride. For 2 miles... I'd be riding my single speed beater mountain bike.

Thank you so much. This is very helpful. How would you decide on the appropriate size? I am 5'9" and my LBS tells me that I could ride anything between 17" and 19". But how else can I be sure of the size! I don't recall the size of my previous bikes unfortunately.

Thank you everyone for extremely helpful comments. I think I am considering of buying something cheap (for now) from Craig's List or even from the local Wal Mart. I might also go to my LBS again to see what used bikes they have for sale.

I am overall leaning toward buying a road bike since I love to use it on long trips on bike paths. Regarding a rack, since I carry a backpack for school, I think it would be very difficult to carry it on the rear or front rack. I must probably just wear the bag on my back and ride the bike, no? Any thoughts on how you would carry a school backpack on a bike?

Thanks.

let's find you a bike on craigslist! where do you live?

Thanks. I live in New Haven, Connecticut.

$25!!!!!!!!! https://newhaven.craigslist.org/bik/1636978817.html

o and by the way, i'm also 5'9" and i generally ride a 54cm road bike (a 52 or 56 could also work in most cases)

https://newhaven.craigslist.org/bik/1632742963.html


https://newhaven.craigslist.org/bik/1635522719.html

https://newhaven.craigslist.org/bik/1628762434.html

https://newhaven.craigslist.org/bik/1626253296.html

too bad you don't live here in Dallas, this looks like a pretty sweet bike: https://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/bik/1637551322.html

Besides your preference in biking also remember your taking this to school. Having recently graduated I can't tell you how many bikes I saw missing seat/seat posts, missing wheels, wheels that got tacoed by some drunk a$$hole.

Get the bike that you want but if its going to spend alot of time outside don't spend a ton.

I've commuted to school here in Denmark every single day on my rack-equipped mountain bike. I can count the number of times I've used it on one hand, my advice is to buy a roadbike and the best U-Lock and Homeowner's/Renter's insurance you can find for when it eventually gets stolen.

Another road bike commuter here. If I were in your situation, I'd look for a CL/Goodwill bike, maybe a 70s-80s vintage. Ability to fit a rack is nice, but backpacks work fine. Then get it mechanically perfect, but aesthetically ugly. Think Millenium Falcon.

I couldn't agree with this more, though I don't know where you're going to school - college campuses are often mentioned as bike-theft-central, but if you're in a college in a smaller town it might be a different story.

I'd buy 2 bikes - one that I actually liked to ride (road bike), another cheap one that I wouldn't be crushed if it got stolen or ruined for your short 2 mile commute to school. It will withstand -
1. Potential of being stolen
2. Being left out in the rain while you're in class, etc
3. Vandalism
4. Accidentally not locking it right - and it being stolen