Commuter bike doodle pad thread

I have a 9 mile commute. Nice distance, but:

First half is By-way on some properly muddy/ rutted/ horse ridden track with an equally bumpy concrete road leading to a perfectly smooth country single carriageway road. And its up hill, not Pennines uphill but a huff and a puff of a gentle incline through the countryside.

Ride home is the reverse of the above, superfast on the tarmac but then back to bumpy rutted By-way.

I used the Pioneer first but that was terrible for the road. The Quinn was pretty good at both but teeth shattering on the bumps.

The old Norman with 700c Schwalbe Landcruisers is pretty near but old shagged out components need replacing (bagged a Mavic CXP22 for a £5 though) and its a bit wooden on the inclines.

Budget is pretty much moot as whatever it will be, it will be bye bye to something retro and hello trade price to something new.

I've been looking at the CX bikes from Specialized and the Kona Dew series, Dew-Drop etc.

Doodle your suggestions here!

I have a Decathlon triplebutted frame hanging around with some P2 and M739 / Mavic 517 wheels which is also a good base for a commuter.

I ride the 12 miles around the water on a smoke , does the job . Got a rack and pannier on it to carry lunch and my man box , which contains all the crap you usually stuff into a pocket : keys , phone wallet , tool , pens etc .

Your welcome to have a go on it if you pop over some time .

Didn't like the dew , don't like alloy . I considered getting a decent enough old frame and just using cheap new bits but currently without the broadband so ebay bargains or even things on here were out of the question . The smoke as a frame weighs 6 lbs

From my fairly considerable commuting experience I have had:

Slick up mtb, was nice a cheap but heavy ended up spending a bit more than it was worth to get something out of it. Enjoyed it when I got there though.

Fixed wheel, a revolution, again cheap nil maintenance and had the different factor, did become boring after a few years though. All very well saying its great training but not every bleeding time.

Road bike, was quick and light and great for extra post work miles, not really too much wrong with it apart from limiting itself to roads.

CX bike, is current flavour of the month, the more I live with it the better it gets, allowing me to do one of the most important things and thats go different routes. Covers 95% of the terrain in my area.

Anyway I was thinking about it recently and decided that there is no real best bike, I'm going to do up the fixed wheel and fit mudgaurds to an old road bike. The variety keeps the commute interesting as well as the flexibilty. So to surmise you need not one more bike but a few :twisted: Knowing what you have you won't regret getting a CX bike and choose one as a tool rather than a desirable object.

Just get a Kona Jake the snake and be done with it


crux looks nice enough too.

weeeeeeelll...had a look at some 'stuff'

Kona are knocking out their trade stuff very cheap at the mo.

We'll see. No decisions whatsoever yet.

On-One Pompino with 'cross tyres.

£449.

Cheap as chips.