Converting Mountain to Commuter

[tattiefritter]

I agree with pretty much what everyone else has said. I use an old MTB for commuting in the winter, its a lot slower than my road bike but it copes with all the road salt and potholes that seem to open up during cold spells. In fact I absolutely hate riding it now but my commute is now 17 miles each way (its now affectionately known as the "anchor" for its uphill performance), when it was half that distance it was fine and I used to use the MTB all the time.

I have modified it over a period of time to have:

1. Slicks, not the narrowest out there but 1.3 Vredestein S-Licks which I find grippy in the wet/road sludge and seem to cope with disk brakes without too much skidding. Also roll well and nice and grippy in the dry too! I don't ride in icy conditions as I've fallen off commuting in snow/ice and broken a couple of fingers.

2. Bar ends for change of hand position. I find resting my hands on the bar ends a more comfortable position for cruising, if your route means you will be constantly on your brakes then they will probably be pointless.

3. Changed out my heavy suspension forks for a cheapo pair of rigids found on ebay (these are not the most comfortable forks to ride on for 17 miles, however they're light and carbon MTB forks are very expensive to justify putting on my commuter).

4. Rack and rack pack. I like having the stuff off my back in the winter as my waterproof is a portable sauna as it is without adding a rucksack in to the mix. I chose a rack pack rather than panniers for two reasons - 1) It's smaller: the more room to carry stuff I have the more crap I'll take, this is especially important for my now longer commute. 2) Its more streamlined in that it sits in the deadspace behind me rather than sticking out a bit on either side of my legs. I can leave shoes and toiletries etc at work so I can get away with a smaller bag. On the road bike I just use a small rucksack.

5. Mudguards (or fenders), my rack is a pretty good guard on the rear and the rack pack takes the rest. I have a full length clip on plastic one for the front which is fantastic and stops a lot of spray.

Also lights (and back up lights), fluoro clothing .... the list could be endless if you want it to be. I've been bike commuting over 6 years now and its taken me a while to arrive at my current set up so there is no rush. Apart from the slicks and guards a lot of the changes above were only made when my commute changed to 17 miles as I started to notice that some things were uncomfortable. I kind of miss my shorter commute as it was a lot less complicated, I just chucked my stuff in a bag and got going!