Interim Commuter
When I first got back into bike commuting, I was riding a really heavy mountain bike. It wasn't much, but it worked. The front suspension really ate up the energy I was putting into the bike, and when fully loaded, it weight over 70 pounds. That was a lot for a 40 mile round trip.
After about a year of that, I decided that I had gotten my $400 out of that 4 series Trek bike, so I upgraded to the Orbea Diem. The Diem is a full carbon, flat bar road bike. It was equipped with a full Ultegra drivetrain, and hydraulic disc brakes. It was perfect—weighing in at only 22 pounds.
There are a couple of problems, though. By the time I put the racks and panniers on, it still weighed a lot. Fully loaded, it weighed more than double the weight of the bike itself. Once I put it on the scale while carrying clothes, shoes, and my laptop (which was normal for me at the time), and it weighed 55 pounds. Kind of defeats the purpose of carbon fiber, don't you think?
For a time, I took the rack off, and just used a normal sized saddle bag for carrying my repair kit. The bike was feather-light once again, which was nice, but there were two unintended negative consequences as a result. One was that I really missed the panniers. Sometimes I bring groceries to work, and with no way to haul them, I found myself more reliant upon the car. The other unintended consequence was that I had lost the advantage of the added weight. Yeah, the heavier bike was an advantage to me, from a training standpoint. Riding a fifty pound commuter three to five days a week was really helpful when I climbed on my 16 pound road bike. Eventually, I put the rack and panniers back on.
I've been kicking around the idea of selling the Orbea for a few months now. Mostly because it is too much bike for what I need. And more recently, I realized that I was putting a lot of money into keeping it properly maintained. I put a lot of miles on it, and that means replacing the chain and cassette pretty often. That's about a $200 job. I was also looking at replacing the front chainring soon. When I bought my Madone, I also bought the extended warranty—Trek calls it "Red Shield." It only cost $250, and for that bike, so it has already paid for itself. Of course, I don't have Red Shield for the Orbea, so all the cost of maintaining it falls on me. So earlier this month, I posted an ad on Craigslist, and within a few days, I had sold the Orbea.
Soon I will be ordering a new Trek commuter bike, and putting the Red Shield warranty on it. But in the meantime, I have to ride to work on something. The District is the obvious choice. When I first bought it last year, I didn't want to take away from the simplicity of the bike by putting a bunch of stuff on it. But for a short period of time, and in the interest of safety, I put my lights and repair kit on it, and have been commuting on it for a few days. It works very well as a commuter—not terribly efficient, because it is a single speed bike. That means that I don't have the ability to maneuver as well in traffic, or tackle any big hills. But for now, it does the trick, and I am pretty pleased with it.
The simple version of the District—no lights, bags, computers, racks, or clipless pedals
My new commuter should be in late next week. Look for a review of it when it gets up and running. But for now, here are a few shots of the District as commuter.
The commuter version District—lights, saddle bag, computer, clipless pedals
After about a year of that, I decided that I had gotten my $400 out of that 4 series Trek bike, so I upgraded to the Orbea Diem. The Diem is a full carbon, flat bar road bike. It was equipped with a full Ultegra drivetrain, and hydraulic disc brakes. It was perfect—weighing in at only 22 pounds.
There are a couple of problems, though. By the time I put the racks and panniers on, it still weighed a lot. Fully loaded, it weighed more than double the weight of the bike itself. Once I put it on the scale while carrying clothes, shoes, and my laptop (which was normal for me at the time), and it weighed 55 pounds. Kind of defeats the purpose of carbon fiber, don't you think?
For a time, I took the rack off, and just used a normal sized saddle bag for carrying my repair kit. The bike was feather-light once again, which was nice, but there were two unintended negative consequences as a result. One was that I really missed the panniers. Sometimes I bring groceries to work, and with no way to haul them, I found myself more reliant upon the car. The other unintended consequence was that I had lost the advantage of the added weight. Yeah, the heavier bike was an advantage to me, from a training standpoint. Riding a fifty pound commuter three to five days a week was really helpful when I climbed on my 16 pound road bike. Eventually, I put the rack and panniers back on.
I've been kicking around the idea of selling the Orbea for a few months now. Mostly because it is too much bike for what I need. And more recently, I realized that I was putting a lot of money into keeping it properly maintained. I put a lot of miles on it, and that means replacing the chain and cassette pretty often. That's about a $200 job. I was also looking at replacing the front chainring soon. When I bought my Madone, I also bought the extended warranty—Trek calls it "Red Shield." It only cost $250, and for that bike, so it has already paid for itself. Of course, I don't have Red Shield for the Orbea, so all the cost of maintaining it falls on me. So earlier this month, I posted an ad on Craigslist, and within a few days, I had sold the Orbea.
Soon I will be ordering a new Trek commuter bike, and putting the Red Shield warranty on it. But in the meantime, I have to ride to work on something. The District is the obvious choice. When I first bought it last year, I didn't want to take away from the simplicity of the bike by putting a bunch of stuff on it. But for a short period of time, and in the interest of safety, I put my lights and repair kit on it, and have been commuting on it for a few days. It works very well as a commuter—not terribly efficient, because it is a single speed bike. That means that I don't have the ability to maneuver as well in traffic, or tackle any big hills. But for now, it does the trick, and I am pretty pleased with it.
The simple version of the District—no lights, bags, computers, racks, or clipless pedals
My new commuter should be in late next week. Look for a review of it when it gets up and running. But for now, here are a few shots of the District as commuter.
The commuter version District—lights, saddle bag, computer, clipless pedals
Hey Jason! Good to hear from you! Hoep everything is going well for you.
Glad to see you got the blog going again. I also enjoyed briefly seeing you by riverside Saturday morning. I'm really curious what bike you are getting for your commute. I've been looking at a new bike, and right now I'm thinking a cross bike like Specialized Tricross.
Thanks guys. It is good to be back. Risan--the crossbike can be a good commuter, I'm told, but the gearing might keep you from being able to light it up when you're late for work. I am going back and forth between the Portland, Mendota, the 520, and the 7.7 FX. Right now I am planning on getting the 7.7. But as the guys here in the shop can tell you, that could change at any minute. Let me know if you want any free advice on commuter bikes. I'm filled with mostly useless information.
I think I'll take you up on the offer. What about cargo? I need to transport a change of clothes and a lunch. I had a Bango Brothers 1040, but was a bit snug and wrinkled my clothes really bad. I read that I could try and prevent that by rolling them. I traded in the bag for a sunlite toploader 3 which seems bigger, but haven't used it yet. What bag do you use and how do you move stuff? It seems difficult to detach and reattach the bag to the rack, so I was planning on just opening it up, but it would be convenient to move the bag around instead.
I used to use a backpack but didn't like my back being all sweaty, the rack top bag is a big improvement.
I use a Bontrager rack. They call it the "interchange" system, because you can put all different kinds of bags, baskets, etc on it. Usually I will run a trunk bag on top, for tools, tubes, keys, wallet, .40 cal, etc. Then I use the panniers on the side for clothes, laptop, and groceries. I neatly fold my clothes, put them inside the pannier, then snug it down with the straps. It does a great job of keeping things wrinkle free. The Interchange system can be pricey to begin with, but once you get the basics down, you can add to it little by little. The bags snap on and off really easily, and provide something like 2500 cubic inches of space.
Glad your back, thought I was going to have to ride from Lawton to check on you!