OK, so a summer of open water swims on a sometimes crowed beach had me wondering about people’s choices of “commuter” bikes. I have seen a ton of really expensive bikes that people ride to the beach to swim. Serious bikes. mostly people ride beaters to the beach just like I do, but there are always a few, especially on crowed weekends or after work hours. I’m talking Luceros and a Blade with Hed 3’s. last week I saw a woman with a Kuota that was seriously beat up, like she rode it everywhere. Now, I don’t have a great bike, but I still don’t ride it anywhere except to train and race. Plus I live in a relatively small apartment with not a lot of bike storage space. What I’m wondering is how many of you who have dropped serious coin on your bikes ride them all the time? And also, how many of you with Carbon Fiber race wheels ride them everywhere too? Personally, I think if you can afford to spend $4000 on a race bike, you can fork over another $300 for some decent beater to ride around town. Am I wrong? Please, someone give me either the validation that I am right, or persuade me I’m wrong.
I have 4 bikes:
Tri Bike: '05 Cervélo P3SL, Dura-Ace 10, ZIPP 404s as well as “training wheels”
Road Bike: '05 Lemond Versailles
CycloCross: '05 C-Dale 800 Optimo
MTB: Old-School '94 DEAN Ti
I only ride the MTB off road, only ride the CycloCross in the winter, train on both the road and Tri bikes but only ride the 404’s when I race.
I have 2 Zipp 2001’s, a Trek 5200 and a Trek 8000.
All my wheels are carbon. Zipp 440’s on the 5200, HED3’s on one ZIpp and Zipp 3000’s on the other Zipp. I ride the carbon wheels and one of the 2 Zipp bikes everyday!! One Zipp 2001 for training on HED3’s and one Zipp for Racing on a HED3C/HED3D combo. The race bike is my backup training bike and is sitting right behind me with the Zipp 3000 wheels just in case. When I’m ready to race I swap out the 3000’s for the HED3C/HED3D combo. Also…I use all tubies except the HED3’s for training are clincher, but I use Tufo tubular clinchers.
I use either my 5200 or my 8000 for bopping around town on errands. I live in St Augustine, right in the middle of the historic district and can get around more quickly by bike then by car.
neither of you worry about theft or destroying expensive equipment?
I have found that there are certain things in life that just aren’t worth worrying about and theft is one of them. Do the best you can to secure your belongings and press on. If something happens, deal with it then.
And, I bought this stuff to ride it. I take good care of it but, if it breaks, it breaks. Nothing I own is going to break form having too much dust weighing it down! 
I sometimes ride my roadie to the coffee shop, but never my tri bike. I always have race wheels on both of them - Shimano 535’s and Rolf Vectors.
I have three bikes.
Cervelo P3C with racing and training wheels for triathlon racing and training.
Merckx Team SC (2002 model) road bike
Cheap-ass Trek 4500 (2000 model) for commuting and running errands. I live in a college town. I’d NEVER lock one of my expensive bikes up outside a building. Never. Lots of bike theviery goes on here.
-Colin
I ride my Kuota to work and back (not much recently) but have done it a few times, it gets stored in the company closet - I tried the whole “winter bike/beater/commuter” thing but I found that I ended spending more hours in the saddle of the beater/commuter than on my nice bike so I sold off the commuter and now I ride the Kuota as much as I can
.
Well I also have 4 bikes. Road bike is a Seven Odonata, Redline cross bike, James TT bike and a K2 Razoerback MTB. And I ride the Seven to work most every day with my Dura-ace wheelset on it. And I some time’s ride my TT rig if I feel like it. I use to think I should commute on the Redline, but hey what’s going to happen to the Seven? Nothing, and it’s a much better ride on the road then the Redline! But then it’s sitting right behind me in my office so if I had to lock it outside I would ride the Redline.
Have fun out there!
Dan…
I ride my Tri bike (Yaqi Carbo) with Nimble Crosswind wheels (sew-ups) everywhere, training, racing, commuting. A friend who is fanatical about changing his tires before every major race keeps me supplied with plenty of rubber, so cost of tires is not an issue. Having said that, I would NEVER park my bike somewhere and lock it up or otherwise leave it unattended.
I personally think it is a shame to have a great bike at home and yet ride a beater for many commuter miles. What are you saving it for? You can't take it with you when you die.
I feel the same. Since I got a commuter bike, I notice I’m riding enough miles on it that whenever I pull out my “good” bike, it takes me some time to get re-adjusted. (Although I appreciate it more)
I don’t ride my “race” wheels though; they’re car-crash-proof (shamals) but I’d rather keep the mileage low on them.
I have 1 mtn bike and 1 tri bike. I ride both “around town.” Mtn bike usually in the winter.
Race wheels are for racing. IMO if you are training on race wheels or riding to the coffee bar you are making a mistake.
I guess with all the commentary I should clarify a little. My race bike is not that great. I spent way more time on it than I do on my commuter even though I log probably less than 250 miles/week right now. That said, my commuter is not a bad bike, just not racable. My commute is about 5 miles, and mostly through traffic. It comes inside everywhere except when swimming. I also live/work about 5 miles from pool and lake so it doesn’t really make any sense to ride my race bike to swim unless I’m doing a brick. Commuting I’m only adding maybe another 65 miles at most per week. And with that said, I’d much rather the track bike that I paid $300 for get stolen than my race bike that I dumped several hundred into in the last year.
I never let my bkes out of my sight…it goes IN the bank…IN the store…etc. if they don’t let me in with the bike…they loose my business!
good thread…i’m considering putting together a power tap/404 clincher ‘training’ wheel that i can race…seeing this makes me think i’m not crazy. or at least not alone in the madness.
I must admit, it makes you feel faster to put on lightweight race wheels on raceday, as opposed to riding them every day but how is riding them “a mistake”?
I’m not saying its a mistake, I’m more questioning people who do it and why. I hear a lot of people differentiate between race wheels and training wheels. I’ve also had a couple conversations with mechanics recently who deal a lot with factory warranty issues where the topic was “what is intended use.” I’ve heard a lot about how much use and what kind of use manufacturers intend for some of their more high end product. I know there is a lot of variation, ie a 220 lb guy could conceivably do more damage to something fragile than someone who weighs only 145 in the same conditions.
My impetus for the post was that I have been seen a lot of really nice bikes locked up this summer and wondered about what other people perceived as appropriate use.
Mistake…hell…I paid a fortune for these race wheels…I USING them!! I can’t believe people paid a small fortune for their equipment then only use it a few times per year. Heck…I love race wheels…they ride great…look great…set me back the “big bucks”…I;m using them anytime I please!!
Besides…I go through race wheels (not from use…rather…just for fun) faster then training wheels…I buy and sell wheels all the time…just for fun! When I sell the wheels I’ll never be able to say “never crashed, never trained on, used only for racing”…thats such bull shit!! : )
Even my training wheels are “race wheels”
last week I saw a woman with a Kuota that was seriously beat up, like she rode it everywhere
Don’t be fooled! There could be a million reason why it is beaten up like that.
Maybe she is a racing traveler (or the other way round). Maybe it is from her divorced husband (who couldn’t come up with the alimony check?)
And then there is the large group of people who only look fast when they are standing still…and you do not want to take this away from them!
Where do you live?
EVERY triathlete or roadie MUST have a cafe racer. This is not an option…it is mandatory. My gosh folks. It’s criminal to ride your race/training steed to the ice cream store. Get a %#@#$%# fun bike, pimp it with a Thomson or platform/spd combo so people know you’re a poser. Add a rear rack for your wetsuit and stuff.
Here are a few choices…then pimp.