electrafreak

Man, that looks good.

wittangamo

Thanks. Rides great, too. They made 'em to last in those days.

theWolf

It is done! I've gotten all the accessories I needed & wanted for my bike. I present, my '08 Commuterized Allez.

Accessories -
Lights: Light & Motion Vega Headlight & Dinotte 400L Taillight
Rack/Bag: Topeak Explorer Rear Rack & Topeak RX Trunk Bag DXP with rain cover
Tools: Topeak Alien II multi-tool attached
Misc: Wal-mart Bell, Specialized Computer, Topeak Cell Phone Carrier (fits wallet too),
extra Brack Levers on top of handle bars, two extra tire tubes & c02 bottles stored under saddle,
& of course water bottles!

Sixty Fiver

jcivic00

from this...



to this...

prawza

wow nice work on the bike^^ was it a diy job?
love the colour

*edit* are those different forks too?

ouzelum

I know exactly how you feel.

ouzelum

oh, and also...Seriously good looking bike, man.

TexasEdit

The bike looks AWESOME!

Sixty Fiver

Work... the 8 hours between bike rides.

Of course... I work in a bike shop and get to test ride bikes during the day.

Sonoma76

Of course, I work for a school district and occasionally get to ride to all 10 different schools.

wittangamo

Thanks to all for the kind words. Working on my 25-year-old Le Tour Luxe was a labor of love. Here's a before picture taken last year when I was thinking about selling it. Disintegrating foam grips, rock-hard plastic saddle, dry-rotting gumwalls, badly in need of a TLC overhaul.



Here's the catalog page I used to pick the powder coat.



It took some elbow grease, but surprisingly little cash because the parts were all tough enough and of good enough quality to reuse.

I was especially worried about the Mountech rear. One of the first mountain-bike-specific derailers made, it had a reputation for shifting like butter but self-destructing after a few months of hard use because of a complex design and faulty seal. When it was disassembled, there was some wear as you would expect from a part that had been in use for a quarter-century, but it still shifted like a champ and allowed me to keep the bike all-original.



Riding it is a lot better than looking at it. There's something about the geometry and give in an old steel frame.

It took me a trip or two to get reacquainted with the downtube shifters after the Shimano 105s on my newer bike, a Specialized Sequoia Elite. Now I understand why friction is still popular with old-school tourers. It's bulletproof, easy to adjust, works with any brand or model of derailer and won't leave you stranded.

The 18-speed touring ratios go high and low enough to zip down city streets or cruise up moderate hills without breaking a sweat. It's pretty close to my ideal of a commuter bike. My only worries now are when I stop.

Before it was too ugly to steal.

gpc

Man there are some gorgeous bikes in this thread. My humble commuter. Picked it up just about three weeks ago. I ride it daily. Just finished my third full week of commuting to office. Edit: Actually this was my fifth full week commuting. The third week on this bike, and the third full week of commuting to the gym and then the office each morning. Still only ~ 8 miles for the full round trip though.

I forgot how much I really enjoy riding.

Shinyville

I just finished making a few subtle changes to my new-to-me 1988 Miyata 615. I went with gold bar tape to match the Miyata logo (the styrofoam grip stuff was totally worn out and disintegrating), and I swapped out the original and thoroughly trashed Selle Royal saddle with a Brooks B17 special in honey. It's looking great, and feeling even better than it looks!

Before:



After:

wittangamo

After three weeks of commuting, you're no longer humble. You're hardened. That's a very functional rig.

jcivic00

no, the fork was the same one from the original picure, I ended up sanding everything down to bare metal. It is a diy paint job, I prefer the flat finish for some reason, it's a little more forgiving than having to make everything all shiny. As for the color, I was looking for something that's uncommon, every bike I've ever owned has always been some degree of red, and i was getting tired of it. The camo green was a little different, I was also contemlating a neon color, for the sake of commuting. You know, it's a be seen type of color.

kk4df

I just started commuting a few weeks ago. I quickly decided that my racing bike was not well suited to the roads I was travelling. Too many rough RR tracks and potholes, and I wanted something more durable. I have in mind to do some loaded touring, so that moved me to look at the Trek 520 and Surly Long Haul Trucker. The Surly won out, and arrived this past week.

I am REALLY enjoying the commutes. The rough, bone jarring portions of my rides are much more subtle now, and I'm no longer abusing my racing bike. After making a few fit adjustments, I got in 50 miles this morning on country roads and it was very comfortable.

Here is my new commuter and touring bike:



Surly LHT 54cm, complete with the following changes or additions:
Schwalbe Marathon 26x1.5 tires
KoolStop brake pads
Brooks Champion Flyer saddle
Shimano PD-M540 pedals
Blackburn rack
SKS P65 fenders
Profile Design AirStryke aerobars
Detours Cruiser Trunk bag
Inertia Designs top bar bag (Bento Box)
Planet Bike Superflash
Ortlieb Back Roller Classic panniers (not shown)

Super6

Brand new commuter for work

Podolak

This is my Winter rig. It is a 2006 Marin Novato. It has mostly stock components. Here is what has changed:

Planet Bike Freddy Fenders
Planet Bike mud flaps
Rack off of an old Diamondback
Diamondback trunk bag
Cateye Strada Cadence cyclometer
Schwalbe Marathon XR 26 x 1.6 tires
Tektro long pull front brake
Blinkie
When it is dark, I have a Nightrider TrailRat light.
Easton EC70 carbon fiber seat post
Brooks B17 saddle
Shimano SPD / platform pedals

I think that sums it up!

kwrides

Thanks for the photo's. I bought the same bike about a month ago and am anxiously awaiting delivery. It's good to see a 90% of what it's going to look like loaded up.

What kind of rack is that?

Would you write a review of the bike somewhere (or just PM me your thoughts)?

Super6

When I have a few more miles on it I'll let you know kwrides.

Otter 718

Rode in today with my new Arkel Tailrider - this really is a great bag. Nice size for commuting, and very sharp looking.

The front rack is another new addition. This was out of stock from Nashbar for so long, but worth the wait.

joninkrakow

Here's mine. It's a German-made Patagonia. Fairly uncommon, even here in Poland. It's a genuine "commuting" bicycle. In this photo, it's pretty much stock as I bought it (used). However, I just bought myself a pair of drop handlebars and bar-end shifters. When I get them on, I suppose I'll have to add a new picture. ;-) It's got low-to-middle range components, but it works like silk. I both love and hate the SRAM twist-grips. It seems they are always in the way. That's one reason I'm shifting to drops. These are my first indexed shifters, and I love the way I can shift without thinking, but I don't really like how I accidently shift when I hit the gas, so to speak.

This bike was bought used, and is pretty beat. But I like that in my bikes.... less steal-worthy. I've always uglified my bikes since I first started riding back in the early-80s. Just made sense to me. :-) But I didn't need to uglify this one. ;-)

-Jon

JeffS

Strangely, I only have pictures of the bikes I've sold, or am in the process of selling. Without a rack or fender amongst them, they don't fit well in this thread, but they were all definitely commuters.

Bike that converted me to drop bars:





Yes, I did commute on it:





First fixed-gear:




Bad Boy... went back on ebay after two commutes -- the intact dork disk should be proof of that.



One of my long-time commuters gets torn down. Hate that I didn't take pics before stripping it. Was built with Phil Wood/DTSwiss/dura ace/fsa. This is the first bike that will be missed if it sells. Ive decided to move the parts to a Lemond Fillmore frame for the rack mount. If it doesn't sell I'll be secretly happy and hang it on the wall until it's eventual return. I hated the graphics, but the red and white grew on me.




Current commuter lineup:

- Salsa Las Cruces (only one currently in service)
- Lemond Fillmore custom build
- Velorbis Scrap Deluxe
- Surly Big Dummy

I'm as attached to the Las Cruces as much as I was the s-works langster. One of these days, I'll get over it and replace it with a more practical frame - meaning rack and fender mounts. Short of full-custom, I can't find a frame I'm entirely happy with. The Salsa Casseroll is the frontrunner right now. Could realistically end up with two casserolls, one geared and one fixed.

kwrides

Very nice stable of "usta haves" JeffS. The Colnago is very pretty, but there is something about that Cannondale that speaks to me.