I have commuted 5 times to work now. I park at G’s daycare and head straight west on McDowell – no fun, no riverbed, no canals, and with the exception of a short jog through a trailer park and a break in a fence and a McDonald’s Parking lot to avoid Mckellips – utterly dull. Its all pavement, or the garbage and glass-strewn crap in the Res they call pavement. It really isn’t dull – its a slow, mind-numbing paranoia — complete defensiveness for an hour at a time. This must be what rabbits and cops feel like, and why they are so crazy and twitchy.

I had it down to just under an hour each way on the Blur, but within 3 rides i had damn-near used up 50% of my tread. I work too hard to keep those fine tubeless wheels and pricey tires ready for real MTB action to piss them away commuting, so decided to try the Superlight. Since its only ridden to shuttle G and the rare occasions Beckie and I ride together, it was much more suitable candidate to get abused by commuting. Unfortunately, it was running a 2.25 Kenda Kinetic which for all its rolling resistance might as well be a block of concrete attached to the hub. During the hour+ it took me each way, I had visions of old Far Side cartoons where the caveman is holding a square stone as v1 of The Wheel.

Very aggravating.

I’m not sure what to do for a commuter since there are so many different ways to go. I could tweak Beckie’s road bike or the Superlight, which would then render either of them too slow or too light for their actual intended purposes, yet simultaneously too light or too burly for their new purposes. I could get a cross bike, but do I really need another almost-roadie? I don’t even know what a cross bike is like? Or I could get a hardtail 29’r, but wouldn’t that just be an overbuilt cross-bike that still would be slow as a commuter or bad for MTBing cause of my tire selection?

So much to think about.

I decided to go for simple at first, and picked up 2 1.5inch cross tires and mounted them on the Superlight with thorn-resistant tubes inside. The wheels are heavy and hard, about what they weighed with tubes and nobbies, but this combination should make them reliable and durable, with little rolling resistance. It’d be nice not to have to worry at all about air pressure or slow leaks. On the ride down to the park with G in the trailer I immediately noticed how much faster the bike felt – the wheels were still heavy to get going, but the rolling was so easy. The first time commuting it took me 50 minutes in and 55 home in 110 degrees – a definite improvement. I did some research and a new low-end commuter will be $450, a new mid-range cross will be $700, and building up the Superlight with new wheels and new brakes and a new lockable fork will be $400 if I am an Ebay-god. So i think I will go with the $30 solution for now, and just see how this goes.

I like having the commute to plan for, i like how alert I am when i arrive, I like how my co-workers are subtlely cowed by this and my persona as a non-lightweight at work is subtlely enhanced. Coming home sucks, but its most efficient when I drop off and pick up G, so the finish is something to look forward to. It will only get better as summer passes. $6 a trip and a great workout.