I’m currently commuting on a 29’er, but it is a heavy old beast. Cycle2work is coming around again, but I can only get £500 worth from Halfords. The idea of a nice light fast bike is appealing, but I wonder how sturdy a road bike would be. My route is mostly cycle paths, which aren’t too smooth in places.

This is what I had in mind.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_272633_langId_-1_categoryId_165710

I don’t want too spend much money as I have blown it all on my alpine 160. My other option I guess is to change the heavy sus fork from my voodoo 29er for a carbon fork and go 1×9 as I had planned, thus shedding a good bit of weight.

Your thoughts please.

I’d just keep the 29er, and mod it to what you want. This is because of the track condition you stated. Road bikes are great on smooth tarmac, but can be quite punishing on poor surfaces.

Depends on the length of your commute. For most commutes you’ll notice very little difference in times.

Someone will till you to get a cross bike. I’d save the cash and change the 29er as you have suggested.

You are probably right, the roads alongside the cycle paths are all dual carriageway and not something I would fancy riding on. Come autumn it gets pretty slippery too! My commute is 13.5 miles each way.

“get a CX” there, I did it. I meant it too.

I think a road bike would also be handy/fun outside of your commute. The roads are pretty dire round here, a carbon fork and seatpost really help. If you get a road bike with good tyre clearance then you could get a 28 or even a 32 on there for some cush.

It’s sh*t what they’ve done about tax on the bike to work scheme eh?

My commute is 13.5 miles each way.

Slightly longer than the average then. A CX bike maybe worth a look. You could pick up a tidy SH Jake for a lot less than £500.

CX bike would be great. Fast on the smooth bits, tough enough for the rough bits. I wouldn’t commute on anything else.

I know it’s not a CX but this just came through on email

http://www.realcycles.com/m37b0s283p2460/GENESIS_2011_Aether_10_2011

seems very good avlue at £420

I use a Kaffenback for my 16 mile commute, almost all on a canal path which is fairly rough in places. I can’t say I find it a problem and it’s a lot faster.

Most of these sturdy bikes will be fine anyway. Stick some chunkier tyres on there and you’ll have no problems. The wheels are all the same for CX and road anyway for this level, the only problem you might have is mud clearance on the brakes.
My day-one has some hybrid tyres on, rode it all through the snow last year and most of my commute is offroad so it gets plenty muddy. It slips a bit sometimes but nothing I can’t control. Grippy offroad tyres are overrated IMO, work a bit and you’ll get round it. Puncture resistance and longetivity are what you want on a commuter.

I occasionally take it out for proper offroad rides with big hills too. It’s all good.

A bloke at work got a Vanquish on the C2W scheme. Very nice bit of kit it is too for the money.

The main worry for me is buckling the wheels! I’ve been using disc brakes since 2002, but the memory of rubbing canti brakes is still strong. My biking budget is pretty much blown, hence the cycle2work idea. Squeazing on some bigger tyres sounds a good option.

Road bikes are great and plenty tough enough for most commutes if you avoid ultra light race tyres and avoid hopping up/down kerbs and potholes.

The bike you linked to is a bit uninspiring but should be up to the job if you swap the tyres to something like 700×25 Continental Gatorskins.

If you are commuting all year round then having some form of mudguards would be a good idea.

If I was in your position I would look at something like the Charge Juicer Mid which you can get for less than £600 on a cycle scheme as shown below.

http://www.discovercyclingtowork.com/cart/details/1168/charge-juicer-mid-product-information

If your commute is not too hilly it may also be worth considering a fixie. Your commute is probably just about the ideal distance to use one and they are reliable and great fun. Something like the Charge Plug should be tough enough, on budget and pretty cool (imo)

http://chargebikes.com/bikes/plug12/

Whatever you get, make sure there’s enough room for proper mudguards.

Cletus, unfortunately I am limited to £500 on the scheme, not a penny more.

A standard CX bike will have exactly the same rims, hubs and spokes as a standard roadbike and they get ragged silly with no real problems.

samuri, so is it just different geo on cx bikes?

Yep, a bit more relaxed than a road bike, the frame might be tougher, BB might be a bit higher, clearance will be more. Mount points for canti’s.

tyres are 90% of the difference. A heavy bike wont be that slow other than up significant hills (IMPO), just make sure you have some nice quick tyres. and if its a 29er you should be able to put on most CX tyres?
for mild off road aim for 1.2″ kind of width i reckon (or 32c in 700cc wheels)

i wouldnt bother swapping the frame though, unless you are chasing roadies.

ive got an inbred with 700cc wheels and 28c road tyres, and it hustles along just fine on leisure rides…

For riding on the road? Very. But I’m not sure how light or comfortable a 500GBP bike is going to be though.

But I’m not sure how light or comfortable a 500GBP bike is going to be though.

??

I’m currently commuting on a 29’er, but it is a heavy old beast.

The OP is alluding to the fact that weight might be an issue. 🙄

As Olly says, weight doesnt really matter until you hit the hills. If you commute is fairly flat then the weight doesnt really make much difference.

No major hills, but lots of long draggy inclines. My 29er is close to 32lbs, surely even a basic road bike would be a good deal lighter than this?!

Road frames are strong I did the three peaks cyclo cross twice on a Dawes Galaxy with few mods

I’d echo Edric. I had a 541 road fram from Mercian. I’ve flogged it over loads of stuff with 25mm tyres. Never felt that it was the weak link, that was me.

A cheap road bike should be cheaper and role well

But a pair of 25-28 mm road tyres on the 29er could remove 2 lbs of weight (Ok that a bit extreme depends what tyres you currently have). Rigid fork would save another chunk.

I got shot of my road bike and now use an MTB frame with Alfine 8 speed 26″ rims and Kojact tyres.

I love the bike it rides well very comfy i can do 50 miles on it no prob. The wheels definatly sock up the bumps more than my road bike.

On you commute a single spped might be the ticket, have you checked out on-one?

I tried single speeding home recently and it wasn’t fun. Most of the time I was spinning out and one of the climbs was just too much. Admittedly I wasn’t on a dedicated ss bike, I just didn’t change gear.

Road bikes are plenty strong, especially the cheaper ones.

I’ve been using a 500 quid one with a pannier rack for years and it copes with potholes, canal paths, trips to tescos (56 litre panniers) etc all fine. Its even had some (unplanned) off-road excursions along some singletrack.

I tried CX but its difficult trying to find any tyres that are puncture proof and lightweight. 28mm gatorskins will cope with most stuff.

I’d imagine its only the very top end stuff thats going to be fragile.

I bought a CX bike on Cyclescheme and haven’t regretted it, the only thing I’d change is the brakes, it would be nice to stop when I wanted to, not when the bike felt like it. The next one I buy will definitely have discs.

I’m riding a road bike to work 2-3 days a week (13-15 miles each way depending on route). It’s a Focus Cayo 105 with Conti GP4000s tyres (23mm) and I’d have to say it isn’t the comfiest over some of the road surfaces. It’s also a ball-ache to fit a mudguard to without it rubbing somewhere. I’m currently trying to fit a pair of carbon bars to it to see if that helps with the road buzz (hands and shoulders take the brunt of it even though I’m only carrying a small rucksack with clothes for the day).

On the plus side, it’s a LOT quicker than an MTB over the same route.

My route is mostly cycle paths, which aren’t too smooth in places

if you buy a roadbike, why wouldn’t you ride to work on the raod? unless your only route involves lots of traffic lights it should make your commute much quicker.
As for how sturdy/practical a roadbike is, I don’t heritate to take mine off-road if I spot a new bit of singletrack worth checking out while on a roadride and a roadbike can be jumped/bunnyhopped over rough sections or holes just as easily as an XC bike.

I’ve been using a basic spec Tricross for the last year and half. Got to say it got me back into cycling and I love it. I’ve tried a few different tyres on it and currently it has some 23c Schwalbe Blizzards as they were cheap and I wanted to try roadie tyres. Massive, massive difference in speed/rolling resistance compared to the 32c borough cx’s that were on it. Ran it through last winter with some Conti Cyclocross Plus on that felt very nice, but wore quickly, like 250 miles before the centre knobs were disappearing.
I realise the Tricross is a bit out of your budget, but what I’m saying is, they are tough old boats. Mine did all the wood-plugging and trails before I got an MTB.

I had exact same worries about road bikes ‘strength’ when I got into it about a year ago.
I built up and ride a 40yr old 531 lugged steel frame with very expensive 60s hubs + 80s rims which I’m always worried about buckling….

however. Put nearly 1000 miles on it now, first 250 of that mostly on gravel tracks & rutted broken tarmac with monster holes in it, with 15kg of panniers on the back.

Nothing has moved, frame is fine, rims haven’t budged 0.5mm, nothing, nada. And I am what I would call ‘heavy’ on bikes (not me, only 80kg, but i ride lazy).

a budget road bike is going to have its short comings, but frankly for commuting, where its going to be left out, banged into, thrown around, lock chain gouged into it, ridden in the rain, sleet, salt and filth (and then not dried or cleaned afterwards), cheap, is what you want.

When you get it, throw some ‘Refuse’ tyres on it, (maxxis or swalbe) around the 28c sort of size, and then enjoy throwing it down canal paths, potholed tarmac etc.