I'm a teacher, each day it's 10 and a bit miles to school each way.
Relativly flat.
Was thinking cotic roadrat. Any ideas… ?

Anything with a Pentil 4 or above processor in it

huh?

Relatively speaking 😉

Surley Steamroller, or if you maybe this:

My Roadrat's ace. Lovely bike to ride. Fast. Sweet handling

I tried really, really hard to ride a Big Dummy 10 and a bit miles each way each day. It's incredibly hard work. Iyield to no-one in my love of cargo bikes, but they are a chore to ride middling distances for the sake of it. 🙂

Sounds like first hand experience has ruled out the BD.
RoadRat it is then 🙂

If it was me I would like a Cannondale Badboy.
Ride pavements, skip lights, ride it like urban northshore.

the big dummy would improve your fitness no?

I bought a GT Tachyon 2.0 for just this purpose in February. A 'road' bike for the MTB'er.

singlespeed an old steel framed, rigid forked mtb, with v brakes and pannier rack mounts, etc. nice n simple. put on some 1.2" slicks nd your good to go. If it's too easy to spin get a smaller sprocket /larger chainring. pretty much zero maintenance, cheap as chips 🙂 everyone here will help you out with bits. Spend the rest on a good lock for the inevitable pub/cakesshop stops on the way home!

charge plug looks nice tho'..
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Charge_Plug_2010/5360039090/

I've got a lot of time for the 700c-wheeled Revolution Couriers. They're cheap-ish, but well specced and extremely durable. Heavy (mine is my heaviest bike!) but still decently fast… But most importantly, they don't attract magpies, they look like they were sprayed in a shed with barbeque paint. Just great solid transport.

You can't buy a Cannondale Bad Boy. They're ridden exclusively by utter bell ends. The only thing that surpasses them is the Specialized Langster. ridden by… well you know who…. Rapha gear. Flat cap on backwards. Stupidly expensive courier bag. Facial hair. Sisters jeans on. In other words…. utter utter c**t!!!

Calm, Binners, calm…

I'm currently using a tatty old hybrid for hacking duties atm. Keveevs found the frame outside Barclays Bikes in Dalston, just thrown away. Replacement brake spigot, mech hanger, and a host of tatty yet reasonable bits and pieces, and it's light, quick and not particularly attractive to scrotey thieves. It even has a rack that we found in the street. Can't beat a bike built from salvage. Proper Pikey Bikey™.

TBH, if I were going to buy owt that's going to be left locked up, then this £69.99 SS MTB from Decathlon would be my choice. Basic, bit heavy, but solid and simple.

SS FTW for a city commuter.

hey binners, I remember going on a Criticl Mass ride and spotting a rather nice young lady on a Langster and she was HOT! and her bike wsn't bad either!

I think for a 10 mile flat commute it's more about what leg muscles/stamina you've got to push the tyres/ gearing resistance you can manage than anything else without being too knackere for a days teaching! rather than what brand of bike.

Personally I'd go with the old school mountain bike train of thought. I've built up a '91 Rocky Mountain Equipe that was abandoned at work for the grand total of zero bucks so far. It weighs around 26lb, single ring up front / 7sp on the back and it flies along quite nicely. It's also fun building something up rather than buying a douche-mobile like a Bad Boy 😉

Charge Plug, of if you like gears get a tap (8 speed nexus – caliper brakes) or a mixer (8 speed alfine – disc brakes). Bomb proof to say the least and you'll be down with the A-symmetrical fringe wearing kids yo 😆

Plug:
Tap:
Mixer:

I'd recommend the Roadrat (That's recommend with one C, teacher eh? pah. 😀 ). I couldn't be happier with mine. Spend some money on getting the frame you want, drop bar or flat and the world is your oyster for the rest of the build. Off the shelf or bespoke, 26" or 700, old parts lying around or new, bling or anti magpie. Lots of attachment points for uncool but commute friendly racks, full mudguards, hub gears (new 11 sp alfine would be a good investment IMHO).

I hear great reports about the Surly Travellers Check tho I don't remember ever seeing one on my commute. Or how 'bout an Orange P7? It has lots of options for commuting build up including Rohloff dropouts if you really want to push the boat out. Orange do a very reasonable solid fork. It also leaves the option to switch to a more mountain bike build up. Or a Thorn Raven has many of the same advantages but Thorn don't like disc brakes and EBBs have their fans and detractors.

Mixer looks ace. Other option could be this?

Ride pavements, skip lights, ride it like urban northshore

I wish – difficult with loaded panniers!

I've used a Roadrat for my commute for last 3 years; fixed, ss and 1×9 at various stages. Carry 2 panniers with reasonable weight (teacher as well). It's not light, but it's stable and still fun. It also coped well with at least 3 reasonable falls on the ice this winter! 😳

Wow…

I think I'm going to head out and check out the ride on a Roadrat and maybe a mixer.
I think I like the idea of disk brakes as I have come so used to having them on my mountian bike.
I am very impressed that so many people ride SS.
I am a tad worried that my legs wouldn't take it, therefore the Alfine looks like an option.

Alternativly this thread has blown my mind open to the old mountain bike frame idea. After all i've got some old wheels and a seatpost. How much more stuff can it take?

I know that I have to stop riding my mountain bike. The 2.3 tires are killing me on the raod!

I'm a little worried that you're a teacher and yet you've spelt both relatively and alternatively without the second 'e' or is that some sort of 'down with the kids' street spelling that's passed me by!

If the tyres are the issue why don't you just swap them for semi slicks or slicks or if you're feeling really lazy, a road biased wheelset? Surely a lot cheaper than buying/building another bike?

I was thinking that but I ride my mountain bike offroad at least one evening a week and both Saturday and Sunday which would require some serious time spent changing tires.
I considered a new wheelset but by the time you add two disks/ casset and two quick release clamps I was looking at 200-300.

Less hasle just to have a commuter bike I think.

Less worried about it getting nicked too.

I am a Mathematics teacher so can't spell for peanuts! 😛
Can do Maths though!

this

http://blog.sidewayscycles.co.uk/2009/11/25/cotic-road-rat-super-commuter/

Well my Maths is pretty crap but my spelling's not too shabby!!

Fair point about tyre changing if your bike's going off road that regularly. However, I reckon you could get a half decent wheelset for around £150 if you shop around. Cassettes and rotors are both cheap after all and none of it needs to be that special.

I'm not really one for buying 'factory' complete bikes but I saw a really nice Trek at work today. Pannier rack, V brakes, flat bars, sensible width tyres. It looked spot on but I've no idea what model it was or how much it would cost to buy.

Best of luck.

I've been looking at the Thorn Audax as a potential fast commuter, but the full builds are a bit pricy – the frames are £350 and the cheapest build is something like £1200.

Their website is a bit kak, but the bikes seem to get good reviews and I guess that's the important thing.

Badboy 8 for me or that new Scott Sub10 on BR.

if your ride is fairly flat then SS could be an option, pompino or maybe the SS inbred commuter, both at the 500 quid mark

this

I think Cotic and Sideways should stick to what they know: mountain bikes.

Alfine aside for the practicality, that thing is gopping. Compact frame, hoooge gaps between wheels and frame, stem ponting to the moon, bars flipped back, no guards, discs and what look like 26" wheels.

Poor thing ought to be put out of its misery.

I think Cotic and Sideways should stick to what they know…

that thing is gopping….

Looks like a bike to me.

The angles aren't flattering and the frame is too small.

What's wrong with mudguard clearance?

You think any bike looks much better with mudguards, panniers and most importantly, a lycra'd hi-viz'd rider on it? 😆

Sorry if it offends the aesthete in you but that thng is immensely practical.

Just like Steve of the Epic up there reckons…

An old inbred frame, singlespeeded, with salsa rigid forks and 1.3 slicks works well for me – light enought, fast enough, great fun to ride. MTB conversion is the way forward if you already have most of the parts.

My previous commuter was an Inbred with rigid Pace RC31's, 1.5" slicks but with gears. It was a pretty good commuter, however the Roadrat seems to be quite a bit faster if that's important.

I'm thinking about trying the 700c Alfine wheels from the Roadrat in the Inbred frame at some point.

one of these

I've a Kona Dew for commuting duties which I'm pretty pleased with, although I have to say Norwester's GT Tachyon 2.0 looks stunning, I saw one this weekend and suddenly started calculating how I can afford one 🙂