I’m about to start a new job with a 15 mile commute each way. There will be a few hills!

I want to ride at least a couple of days a week. Not sure whether I should get a roadie for speed, a fast hybrid, or a CX.

I’m unlikely to use the bike for much else as weekends I’m always off-roading – commuting seems the most logical way to get my fitness up and miles in, as I work full time and study part time so don’t have a huge amount of time to do lots of training, but improving my fitness for the trail is important.

Anyone got any recommendations?

have a look at my thread bud you may see what my work mate is the same thing has yourself

personally i’d go SS or CX. hybrids are a bit…. well, y’know.

I use a spesh langster which i love.

I use a charge plug, which is great. How hilly is you commute going to be though?

no crazy hills or anything but enough to get the heart pumping!

the only thing that worries me with a roadie is that I’d have to carry my work stuff in it, might it be uncomfortable riding in that position with a backpack on? sorry if I sound completely clueless, never had a road bike before!

Get a road bike with clearance for guards and mounts for a rack – carry the load on the bike not your back.

again i didn’t know that road bikes would be able to carry a rack/panniers, useful stuff!

Get something which will take mudgaurds and panniers for that sort of distance, or use a rucksack and find a physio who does a loyalty card…

I do a similar commute on a base model Kona Dew, but half is on cycle tracks or surfaced towpaths. With the recent spread of CX bikes I’d maybe get one of those if I replaced it now. My heart likes the idea of a Spesh Langster for simplicity, though my head says my knees and lower back won’t take it…

Cotic Roadrat with flat bars. Fun handling and upright position like a mountain bike. fast skinny wheels like a road bike
I have disc brakes on mine for safety when riding in traffic. love it

Hills : Genesis Day One Alfine
Flat : Kona Paddy Wagon#

Both with rack, mudguards, decent lights (bolted to rack) and possibly a dynohub.

#Specialized Langster is a lighter choice but fitting rack and guards is harder (there is no chainstay bridge and clearance is tighter)

eek I just saw the Langster is singlespeed….not sure I’m that fit!

got a bit of food for thought though, thanks 🙂

can you dump stuff at work? one option is drive one day a week and stash a weeks worth of clothing. that way you don’t carry anything with you on a normal day.

I commute on a flat bar Il Pompino with mud guards, rack and panniers – a great bike for the job.

A bit like this one (random photo from Flickr):

for me flat bars, alfine, rack and mudguards

I was commuting regularly on a Langster, recently added a Tricross single to the collection, which is basically the same but easier to mount a rack and guards to – I paid about £200 for mine, bargainous 🙂

Cheers, Rich

Don’t listen to these single speed masochists! A nice geared road bike is what you need.

15 miles = road bike for sure, mudguards, rack and pannier.

Will help fitness a lot. SS not too bad if it’s not too hilly but might take getting used to.

think i’m going to check out some flat bar road bikes.

not masochistic enough to go singlespeed yet. Gears are my friend.

ta for all the suggestions – very useful!

Gears, panniers, mud guards and disk brakes if possible.
I bought a focus planet tr3, has all of the above plus an alfine8, oh and bright blue tyres!!!:-)
It’s fast and ace in traffic but the position isntquite areo enought, it take sa bit of work to keep it at speed (which I suppose is good for the fitness).

If you want a road bike, but don’t like normal drops for commuting, I can recommend fitting some flared drops – much more comfy position although they do look fugly.

I have some Salsa Woodchippers on my Genesis Croix de Fer which look a bit strange – but they are comfy and offer the range of hand positions that flats don’t whilst not having too much of a drop and offering a more natural hand position.

im going to buy mrs T-R a genisis dayone alfine or an on-one pomphetamine versa 11 pending my lbs cutting me a good deal on a dayone 11speed for the same task plus the winter chaingang.

9 miles with rack, panniers and schwalbe marathons along an old (tar surfaced) railway then then 3 miles through the town centre. –

im going for the diskbrakes + hub gear + marathons = minimal maintainance from me to keep her rolling. ill probably use my spcialized tricross single for a similar route

do not underestimate the worth of puncture resistant tires – nothing worse than arriving late and covered in road grime from tires !

Agree with the geared road bike with mudguards and rack eyelets suggestions for a regular 15 mile hilly tarmac commute.

You’ll be glad of the gears going up those hills after a hard day’s work, you’ll be glad of the mudguards when the road is wet, you’ll be glad of the rack to let the bike rather than your back take the load.

Drops or flat bars is up to you but drops that are set up right offer more comfort once you’re used to them.

IMO 8)

I commute on a Cannondale Bad Boy Solo. Basically a flat barred road bike, with hydraulic disc brakes and a 3 speed hub gear. I also put Continental GP 4 Seasons tyres on it for massive puncture resistance.

It’s perfect for me, for my 6 mile commute in London. Which let’s be honest is pretty flat, but there is the odd attempt at an incline which the hub gears handle just fine.

I’m doing a similar commute on a Genesis Equilibrium, perfect for it I think, so I’d recommend a road bike with compact or triple chainset, mudguards, light weight rack. You’ll be glad of it’s speed and lightness over a cx or hybrid over that distance. Something like a specialized secteur would be good. Some good suggestions here.

Definitely some kind of rack + panniers, I’ve just started doing a similar distance (first time I’ve commuted by (push) bike in about 20 years!) and there’s no way I’d want to wear a backpack.

Mudguards and slicks a must, drop bars optional. Flat bars with barends would be a pretty good choice, too – ideal for motoring along on the flat, better access to brakes when you get into town.

If you’re only doing it a couple of days a week any reason you can’t take stuff and leave it at work, negating the need to carry anything significant when you ride in?

That’s what I do, on a road bike.

If the route is prone to headwinds then I’d want drops over flat bars. The mudguards and the rack are the most important thing though.

I do a 15 mile each way commute across the Quantocks (1000ft of climbing each way) I chose an Orbea igorre CX bike when our company joined Cyclescheme a few years ago and I’ve been very pleased with it. I use a rucsac (Camelbak Octane8) because I often take offroad detours and can’t image much worse than panniers bouncing around and making the bike feel like its made of lead.

My Trek Sl1000 road bike does the trick for me. no guards but I have a quick release pan rack for it. works perfectly.

fixed wheel road bike here with guards and rack. 18 miles each way and its kinda hilly 🙂

I use a steel CX disc bike, not yet had to pannier it up but it wont be long. I dont have far to go but it is quite hilly.

I tried a couple of Aluminium bikes with better groupsets but due to the route being littered with bumps of all sorts i went for steel… of course carbon would be a first choice but budget didnt stretch that far.

If you’ll be riding through lots of traffic you’ll probably find flat bars give you a better position and better control of ’emergency’ braking.

If it’s more open roads then drop bars can be worth it for comfort and getting out of the wind a bit.

mines only ~6 miles each way (i do it every day) but i’m loving my road bike. Don’t kid yourself, you will use it at weekends once you get the bug 😈

I do a similar distance once or twice a week, and have the luxury of choosing a road or off roadish route – around 200-250M of climbing each way.

Road bike is quickest and best option for me – I get back in time to see my children, and it doesn’t take much longer than driving. Still a good workout. Best all round option I think.

MTB is fun on a sunny day with a diversion on the way home.

I like riding SS but commuting on it wasn’t happening – the hills are too steep (1/5 on the way home in places) for a good ratio to get the speed up on the flat bits. I take the mtb ss if I know I don’t have to rush, as there’s an offroad return leg that isn’t so steep.

I’ve got a Kinesis Decade Tripster with 105. My requirements were: mudguards, rack and discs. Tripster fits the bill nicely, and they’ve even thought about using the discs, guards and rack at the same time. Never ridden fixed/SS other than on a track and I’m not in a hurry to try.

My route isn’t exactly hilly, but when it’s late, I’m tired, and I’ve got a ton of stuff in the pannier, even the small hills make me glad to have gears.

Flat bar road bike? – Boardmans are well put together, have all the eyelets for racks and guards and are excellent value.

On-One Pompino SS with mudguards and Carradice saddlebag and a SQR seatpost rack mount, the saddlebag gives me 15 litres of carrying and can come off the bike in a second or two.
If I’m not using the saddlebag then there is a small plastic mount on the seatpost so looks a lot better than a rack n panniers ( I did use panniers for a couple of years )
My commute is 5k direct but I take a scenic route and it’ll be 15-20 miles each way most days.

On One Pompetemine, 8 spd Alfine and possibly for sale.

funny craig, I was looking at the On One Pompetamine today! I like the look of it.

What frame size is it?

I’ve kinda narrowed it down to the On One, the Boardman Fi, and a Ridgeback Ultra Flight which I also looked at today. Had a couple of Ridgebacks over the years and the geometry seems to suit me quite well. I still have an old one from 2001 which is great for pootling round town and doing my shopping but wouldn’t do a regular 30 mile round trip.

Now I just have to start my job and figure out how soon I can use the Cyclescheme – well that’s the preferred option but if I’m not eligible for my first year or something like that I’ll no doubt still buy something though.

currently on this, comfy for 17 mile commute

day touring lite Swift by rOcKeTdOgUk, on Flickr