When I only had space/money for one bike, I used a rigid Scandal for this purpose for quite a while. It was fine, main issue that was a bit of a pain where wearing out of quite expensive drivetrain, other than that it did the job nicely.

i use a steel kona with P2s ten miles each way

1×10 is fine as its flat round here

the most important thing is schwable marathon plus tyres!! no punctures in 2 + years youll be amazed how much glass, and pointy stuff is lying in the road

ive recently gone for discs as my fingers were aching with Vs, and you get through pads and wear rims out fast

and I leave a very heavy motorbike chain at work and have security qrs on my saddle and wheels (still run a cable lock through them)

My commuter’s a 26er so I can use part worn tyres from my proper MTBs. After looking at lots of horrible SH stuff on the bay I ended buying a new Brand X XC3 frame from CRC.

Must just be me but I couldn’t go back to 26″ wheels after commuting on my road bike. I’m going to build up my old ht frame with rigid fork and cx/29er wheels for this winter.

Probably just me being spoilt but a word of warning nevertheless.

Alfine and discs is still a bit too nice to leave outside really.

I picked up an old 90’s MTB to use as a commuter for a while, worked great. Its easy to start over-speccing it though, remember it needs to be locked outside otherwise you’ll be back where you started needing a new commuter. (this seems to have happened to me..)

I had On One carbons on mine. I never left it locked up anywhere though, really, secure buildings at both ends. Part of the reason for eventually getting the Pomp as an all-purpose bike.

It was very good fun to ride, obviously nice and strong so good for a fairly “wheels off the ground” commuting style. 🙂

Horatio – I’m going the same way, my Pompetamine appears to have acquired a Chris King headset, Thomson seatpost and other excessively nice parts. Trying to rein myself back in!

If anybody wants some 26″ Marathon Plus tyres, gimmie a shout. I have a pair with less than 100 dry miles on them.

Go for it!!

Twenty year old Marin Eldridge Grade, with slicks, guards and a rack. A perfect short commuting machine. It’s surprisingly nice to ride, and is cheap enough for me not to worry about locking it up in the city centre.

Personally I’d go for 1.5″ slick tyres, you can usually pick up a wire bead pair for £25 ish with tubes on Wiggle et al and they’d add a handy turn of speed over fatter slicks. Flat bars with bar ends for a rang of positions too.

Rode a Kona like this for ages till I bought a proper road bike, not that much slower overall.

Shocking photo but this is my recent commuter for a 12 mile round trip

Old Merlin Malt frame which is very light, triple butted P2 forks and some quality kit, it now has full slicks on too and guards. All in it is so light and very fast. I can cruise at about 25mph and only the odd roadie is faster.

So yes 26″ wheels can make a great commuter and I dont worry about leaving it locked on the street.
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2013-04-13 18.52.23 by Ian Dyson, on Flickr[/img]