New commuter's bike ponderance

spatuluk

Hiya! I apologize in advance, as this post has turned into quite a ramble. :oops: Skip to the last paragraph if you like!

I'm pretty new to commuting (and this forum!).. I've attempted commuting before, but weather, horrible roads, bike failures, sleep deprivation (recently had a sprog!), and illness always seem to scupper things..

Now that I've had some sleep and forced a few gallstones through, I'm trying to cycle again! My commute is 7.5 miles each way, mostly on the A6 through Stockport to Manchester. My current bike is a 2004 Specialized Hardrock XC, and I'm starting to think that using it is a bit like trying to cycle through treacle. I put on some slick-ish tyres (Continental Town & Country), but I think they might actually be worse than the nobblies, as they're the same width, and the lack of nobbly bits means that there's probably more contact with the road. :?

Sooo.. I'm thinking I need to either stick a rigid fork on my MTB, and buy some proper slicks and possibly slimmer wheels, or I could dabble in the dark art of road bikes. Now, I've just bought a house and had a kid, so finances are somewhat on the restricted side, and I thought I might be able to get an old 80s road bike, like what I used to have when I was a teenager. I bought many for less than £25 back then, so they're probably about the same price now, I thought...

Imagine my surprise to find that Raleigh Winners, which I'd previously wrecked several of, are now being sold for over £100! I guess it's because so many were wrecked or scrapped, and they're now like classic bikes or something. I dunno. Anyway, I almost went back to the MTB idea, but then saw a dude who'd converted an old bike into a singlespeed, and noticed how much lovelier his bike looked compared to my shabby, fat, MTB. Some drooling may have occurred.. :roll:

So, before I shell out £150 or so on a 'vintage' bike, and start upgrading the components, will such a machine be able to take such a journey? The road is pretty shoddy, and there's a few potholes disguised as drains along the way, but I think most roads have been that way since the 70s, so surely the bikes were designed with that in mind?

For those that skipped, the question is: can 70s/80s road bikes cut it on todays roads, or should I stick with my relatively bombproof MTB and stick a rigid fork on it?

Kieran_Burns

I did a course in Manchester last month. I only had a couple of days in the city so drove both days. It took over an hour to clear Stockport from the City Centre and all I could see was cyclists going past me....

That's a scary road but the fastest things on it were the bikes. The pinch points of the HUNDREDS of traffic lights just had the bikes passing on the outside (only saw a couple of RLJ which is nice)

I'm going to go against my usual advice on this one and say - check the tyres and lock out the forks. You should have the tyres at their MAXIMUM psi and get the thinnest road slicks you can fit.

However - from what I remember there's only one hill of any type at all on that run in, so a single speed would work.

Yes a converted old skool bike would happily cope on that shoddy road but you may want to hold off until you're sure of the commute (personally I wouldn't hesitate after that fecking nightmare of a drive out)

spatuluk

Thanks for the advice!

I'm not gonna go singlespeed.. well.. not yet, anyway - my legs are far too feeble! It would be a 10 speed, or maybe a bit higher, depending on what I can fit on/do to the frame. Oh, and the MTB forks are knackered RST Capa T5s, which don't have lockouts. I haven't offroaded with it since moving to Manchester 3 years ago, so I don't think I'll miss the suspension much.

It's all kinda downhill toward Manchester. Not much of a gradient, but it adds at least 10 minutes to my cycle home. Stockport sits in a valley, which has me shifting down quite a few gears on the uphill, and had me getting off and pushing when I first started. I can get all the way up, now. I only see a few other cyclists when I'm on the bike, but 90% of them RLJ. I'm not one of them - I need the rest!

Kieran_Burns

Of course: viewtopic.php?f=40090&t=12869362 if it's your size I would bite his hand off.