Commuting – why not use your good bike?

When I post goes up asking what bikes you've got, how many bikes etc there are always replies saying "I've got x, y, z and a commuter"

If I worked in an office I'd love to have a good bike to ride since I'd probably use it more than my "proper" bikes.

Why is it people use some old, put together bike rather than their decent bike to ride to work? Are they ashamed to be seen on a good bike at work? 😉

Have you heard of theft?

TBF I have a decent but not amazing bike to commute on, as you say, it gets ridden way more than my others.

Surely it's just a way of getting one more bike-this time partially payed for by Bike to Work etc?

The bike I ride to work on is highly likely to be left outside a pub/restaurant/cinema/woman's house/supermarket at some point on the way home. I can do that with a nice bike that I put time, energy and large amounts of money into, or with a less nice bike. 🙂

yep, theft.

i used on old knackered frame but with reasonably good bits on it.

Even if you've got secure bike parking, a cheapo bike is useful for leaving locked outside shops or the pub.

does depend where you store it ….

mine lives outside at home for ease of access so i dont want to leave my good bike there ….

i ride it in the salt and road grime all year round and wash it once a month or so at best …..

other folk leave them locked up outside during work hours in city centers. …

My good bikes would actually be pretty crap for my commute, whereas my old hybrid is spot on.

Mudguards. Best deterrent to theft I can think of.

If I rode my good bike I'd spend almost all my free time cleaning it and keeping it working. I don't feel so bad about just lubing and leaving my commuter dirty!

I've been commuting on my nice road bike since the weather got nice, mainly because the Power Tap wheel's on that, and I can't be arsed to swap back to the heavier nastier commuter bike!

If it gets nicked, then c'est la vie, that's what insurance is for, but it seems pretty safe here!

Hmmm… that's a false sense of security if I ever I heard one…

2 weeks ago I had a long and tedious conversation with a neighbour about why I didn't ride my good bike to work, 'cos he did. I don't think he understood the difference between the best bike and the commuter (with rack + mudguards).

Theft was the answer I was expecting but thought there must be better reasons than that.

Despite swapping frames every 5 minutes I do like to have just the one bike and up until a month ago was more than happy to ride my (totally impractical but so much fun it should be illegal) Slopestyle to work. I guess the wanna-be bike thief probably did me a favour by showing up the flaws in my locks (Abus Steel-o-Flex was hanging by a few threads, New York lock was unmarked but one of the railings was nearly cropped through). Since then I've been paranoid despite finding more secure storage, and I've spent an absolute fortune trying to find a commute bike I'm happy with – 6 builds in just over a month is excessive even for me but at the end of the day I agree, why should we have to put up with riding crap to work, as enthusiastic as we are over bikes and cycling 👿 . Build No 7 (lightweight 4X bike) will be complete by the end of this week (Parcelforce permitting), – hopefully featuring zero crapness and 100% fun. Watch this space . . .

My Blur LT with 2.35 tyres is a bit sh1t for 8 mile stretches of tarmac!

I've taken it a couple of times for a giggle, it does make potholes smaller but its a lot harder work than my trusty 8 year old Stumpy hardtail with slicks on.

Theft was the answer I was expecting but thought there must be better reasons than that.

What's not good enough about theft?

EDIT: other reasons – salt on roads on winter and glass on roads etc.

Winter roads wreck a bike – which is why I use a hack bike.
Not forgetting the need for lights and mudguards.

Summer is different and I often commute on a "nice" bike – particularly if I'm going out for a lunchtime spin.

It is fair to say no-one has time to really clean a bike daily after the commute so would you rather do 100miles a week on a £500 drive train of a £50 if they both get you there?

one of these was parked in the bike shed this morning

but its been neutered and fitted with skinny road tyres, what a waste of a good offroad bike

and it certainly will be a waste when some scrote smashes the 10 quid lock and carries it off or just undoes the qr wheels and seatpost

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/gary-fisher/big-sur-disc-2009-womens-mountain-bike-ec017176

i use my old kona lava dome rigid with semi slicks so i can still hit the odd trail if im so inclined

my commute bike isn't the most expensive but it isn't the least either. it is the best commuter bike in the shed. SS/Fixed/roadie/CX pompino.

I pass a guy who rides an S-Works Epic into Guildford town centre, appears to head into a car park under a well known computer games manufacturer, so I guess it gets left there.

Let's be honest, most opportunist thieves don't know the difference between a £50 Apollo and an S-Works.

You see, there's that optimism again…

I don't have a crap bike as a commuter, there are three reasons for that. I have a very secure bike shed, I have a 20 mile each way road commute and I don't want to ride a bike that looks like shit.

Most of the time I use my kona jake the snake which wasn't cheap to strat with and has a few nice bits added. In the good summer weather I use my full on road bike.

My good bike is a mountain bike, my commuter is a road bike. Simple.

Oh, the reason it's not a good road bike is because I prefer to spend my money on MTB stuff. Road bike does the job.

£500 hardtail with a rack, MX comps and saint discs here.
I have gone the insurance route. That gives me the peace of mind to not worry about it whilst shopping.

No attempts at theft in 4.5 years so far (touch wood). My attitude is as I have no car, I'll be ufcked if chavs are going to make me spend hours a day on some BSO or other rat bike. I do more miles on the commute than for pleasure.

Realising that the insurance I pay is more than some people pay for their car insurance is getting to me now though!

one bike for everything…single speed with 130 revs and kenda small block 8 tyres, the same machine goes to cannock chase once a month and the local woods as often as i can….the good thing is i can thrash it around the skate park which is just down the road from work at lunch times for a hour or just into town for a sarnie. I park it in the office under the stairs so theft isn't such a issue.

I do commute on my good bike. I use my Cervelo S1 if I am road riding or my titanium Altitude if I ride off road. They are only bikes not rare works of art. Use them and enjoy them I say.

Cost of running. A bike used for commuting tends to have high millage and low maintenance / cleaning regime.

it's the other way around for me. i have a commuter, and a better offroader. but the communter is so much fun that i'm gonna soon to put all the good bits on and have just the one bike 🙂

The general rule is:

Nice weather: nice bike
Crap weather: crap bike

Whether commuting or not! I got used to my commuter over winter, although the brakes are horrific (105), the geometry's all to cock (much too high at the front) and it weighs more than my MTB, but as soon as I got back on the Madone it's just so much nicer, may as well use it!

Running a nice bike for commuting costs too much and you run the risk of it being out of action when you want to use it elsewhere. When I used one bike for everything I used to get through 2 pairs of rims, about 30 pairs of brake blocks, 2 changes of cables sets, 6 chains, and 3 changes of cassette/chainrings a year.

Mine would cost £700ish to replace, compared with £300 for my mountain bike.

It is my only road bike, it gets 3 or 4 thousand miles a year of riding, and that would be a right old pain on a mountain bike.

It has a hub dynamo, lights, great big rear saddlebag thing, mudguards etc. and is set up very much for commuting, shopping etc. If I did road biking seriously, I'd probably want something else too.

It's insured on my household insurance, as long as it's locked up (costs me £30 a year or so), and it lives in my office at work, and somewhere quite secure at home, but I do lock it up and leave it in town, or at the shops or wherever.

Joe

secure lock up at work so use a decent bike
Do road bikes actualy get stolen in that there London?

My last commuter cost me £30, the one before that I found in a hedge.

The next one cost me £350 inc panniers and is a whole lot better, but the geometry hurts my knees so it has to go.

Next one will probably be a kaffenback or similar.

The general rule is:

Nice weather: nice bike
Crap weather: crap bike

Nice weather : nice bike
Crap weather : car

😆

the geometry hurts my knees

WTF

Is it just too small and they hit their knees on the stem

Cheap parts last longer. Save the diminishing returns for high days and holidays.

A lot of people will ride any sort of ill fitting crap for commuting

i have two commuting bikes – both good what is the pointof haveing crap bikes…

perhaps people could have

toptube sticker 'My other bike is a ..insert apparently good bike brand here…' applied

Do road bikes actualy get stolen in that there London?

EVERYTHING gets stolen in london

A lot of people will ride any sort of ill fitting crap for commuting

Commuting should be as pleasurable as possible not make it a chore.