Approx. 10 mile commute. Road Bike vs E-bike

[Tin Pot]

Hey everyone

About me, because I know this very much depends on the person: male, 72 kgs, 5'11, not unfit.

Jeez. Try strapping a 10kg weight vest on and commuting 30miles!

Haha, I see a few people who look forward to journeys they previously thought were a slog!
How do you find those hills in the winter?

Hills are what keep you warm as the temp heads below 5°C.

Personally I wouldn’t be worried, get a roadie, try the ten miler, see how you feel.

See if you can find a slightly longer, flatter route if you’re really concerned. I’ve found that I have to try a few different routes to find one I want to use.

As with all things commute; prepare well, plan for disasters, leave as much kit and gear at work as you can. You don’t want to be buying new tyres and tools in your lunch break as I have had to, and you don’t want to be hauling anything around on your back if you can avoid it.

 

[Crankarm]

ebikes are for lazy people. If you want a bike with a motor get a proper motorbike.
Also an ebike must be very heavy to pedal when it's batteries are flat especially uphill. It will have a limited range where as a traditional bicycle can go as far as you can pedal it.

 

[Vantage]

Road bike. Something with mudguards for year round commuting. Able to take studded tyres if cycling through winter and if you're carrying stuff, able to be fitted with a rack.


On second thoughts get a tourer with low gearing.

I say this because of your age. You're young. You don't need electric assistance and if as you say you're not unfit, you'll want to stay that way.
I say this as someone who had a stroke at 41 which cost me all my previous fitness and now working on getting it back...It's taking forever.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I haven't seen anyone mention a Hybrid. If the bikes only for commuting I'd be inclined to look at Hybrid rather than a road bike.

 

[I like Skol]

I started out using a hardtail MTB with slicks for 6 months then bought a rigid hybrid at the end of 2010 and still use this for the majority of my riding despite having the MTB and a really good carbon dropbar bike at my disposal. The Hybrid has mudguards and a pannier rack so is just perfect for me for my commute. I would definitely suggest you ditch the 'Old MTB' but consider a rigid hybrid, flatbar road bike or dropbar road bike

I haven't seen anyone mention a Hybrid. If the bikes only for commuting I'd be inclined to look at Hybrid rather than a road bike.

Should've gone to Specsavers!

 

[Siclo]

@Wayfarer before you go down the cycle to work scheme route I'd have a word with John of John's Bikes in Middleton, generally he does second hand but can build from new, also does elec conversions. Don't be put off by the state of the shop, it's a proper old skool bike shop, bits everywhere, but he's a top bloke who knows his stuff, no hard sell and some truly beautiful rescued machines in there.

EDIT: In fact thinking about it he had a Trek 1.2 in there with guards and rack mounts in your size for a bargain price, I very nearly bought it not so long ago as a new commuter but wanted disc brakes.

 

[vickster]

Jeez. Try strapping a 10kg weight vest on and commuting 30miles!



Hills are what keep you warm as the temp heads below 5°C.

Personally I wouldn’t be worried, get a roadie, try the ten miler, see how you feel.

See if you can find a slightly longer, flatter route if you’re really concerned. I’ve found that I have to try a few different routes to find one I want to use.

As with all things commute; prepare well, plan for disasters, leave as much kit and gear at work as you can. You don’t want to be buying new tyres and tools in your lunch break as I have had to, and you don’t want to be hauling anything around on your back if you can avoid it.

It’s spring, OP should be fitter by winter

No need to haul anything on your back, that’s what a rack and panniers are for.

Leaving tools at work isn’t going to help if you get an irreparable puncture on the way in

Why would you keep a tyre at work?

 

[Siclo]

Why would you keep a tyre at work?

Can't answer for @Tin Pot but possibly for the same reason you keep a track pump, a full set of cables, a pair of rather notchy headset bearings, a set of brake blocks and a chain. I'm not sure what that reason is, it might just be I'm too lazy to cart it all home.

 

[vickster]

I wouldn't have a clue how to use any of that stuff and I've never needed to, nor would I wish to spend my lunch hour doing bike maintenance. but if I had an issue, there's an LBS 2 minutes from the office, a train home and an estate car on my drive that I could use to collect the bike which could remain in a secure underground carpark at the office

 

[Siclo]

Horses for courses innit? If it comes to a choice between an hours fettling or two hours fighting Manc's public transport, I'll take the fettling every time, and I hate fettling.

 

[vickster]

My current contract is based about 5 miles from home, 25 mins by bike or car approx, 50 minutes by train. I use the latter v sparingly

 

[I like Skol]

If the bike is looked after properly then there is no need to keep all that junk at work.
In approx. 8yrs of cycle commuting I have only once had to call out assistance (my wife in a car) after a worn tyre I knew was getting near the end of it's life decided to rupture terminally. Other near misses are limited to a slashed tyre due to a stray Stanley knife blade (bodged repair and journey continued) and a broken chain successfully repaired with a spare quick-link. Everything else is just the routine puncture repair.

 

[Bazzer]

Can't answer for @Tin Pot but possibly for the same reason you keep a track pump, a full set of cables, a pair of rather notchy headset bearings, a set of brake blocks and a chain. I'm not sure what that reason is, it might just be I'm too lazy to cart it all home.

Blimey!
Puncture repair kit, with a couple of: tubes, quick links and cable ties, along with a couple of tools are all I have and they are in the bike bag all the time.

 

[Siclo]

If the bike is looked after properly then there is no need to keep all that junk at work.

Commuters are for destroying, if you don't some swine in a car will And if you absolutely have to fettle it, it's better doing it on works' time. Never been rescued on the commute although I have had a very long walk home after blowing a rim I knew was worn

Now best bikes...they need looking after, cleaning, drying next to a radiator and given a loving stroke now and again.

Blimey!

I don't carry it Bazzer, well actually I carry cables and pads on the audax bike, it's all in my filing cabinet.

 

[KneesUp]

OP - what is your current 'old MTB'? As @I like Skol says, it might be a prefectly useable frame as it is. I've commuted on a (very?) old MTB for the last couple of years. It's fully rigid (i.e. it doesn't have suspension front or back) and fitted with slick tyres it's ideal for commuting - it laughs at potholes, even though here in Sheffield there is a fine line between a pothole and a sinkhole, no-one is ever likely to nick it, it takes a pannier rack (you may be using a rucksack now, but believe me, as you get older your back will thank you for not doing, even if you can't feel it now - what you are now, I once was; what am I now, you will one day become and all that - plus in the summer you get really sweaty with a rucksack) and it has lower gearing than a road bike because it has smaller wheels and MTB just do have lower gearing anyway. Lower gearing is good when you are cycling upill everyday with panniers full of spare clothes / laptop / a bit of shoppng you got on the way home / a dirty great lock / some tools. Oh, anmd it has mudguards too. I can't tell you how important proper full length mudgaurds are if you're going to cycle everyday. Especailly somewhere that gets, er, the odd day of rain (I'm a Mancunian) I've converted mine to drop bars just because I like them, really, but I use the tops mainly when I'm commuting becuase in a city, being able to see that idiot who is going to pull out in front of you is more important than being aero.

Using an old MTB will only really be a pleasant experience if it was a nice MTB in the first place though.

Of the choice between a electric and non-electric bike I'd chose the former. An electric bike would feel to me to be more likely to get stolen, and as others have said, once you get to over 15mph, it's just a cheap heavy bike because the motor cuts out with a battery you have to remeber to charge and perhaps replace every few years. I don't entirely dismiss them though - I'd like to think I'll get one one day, but as long as my legs can take me where I want to go I'm happy with the relative ligthness and simplicity (and unattractiveness to thieves) of my old MTB.

I'd suggest that you use the bus once or twice a week at first to allow your legs to get used to it but by summer I'm sure you'll be doing it every day witout a second thought. I'm not that familiar with your bit of Manchester - I tended to cycle more when I lived in the South (and in fact it was in Prestwich that my bike was nicked leaving me bikeless for about 10 years as I didn't cycle much then) but I'm sure there must be routes you could take that are more attractive than either Bury road? I have a direct way in to work and a longer way home which involves less traffic, cleaner air and more green things to look at.