Originally Posted by
tFUnK
Everyone has a different definition of "commuting" so the only thing I'll contribute is that back in the day I rode a front suspension hardtail mountain bike on the streets of San Francisco (lots of rough pavement) and it was a lot of fun. The other folks on the ride had road bikes with skinny tires (these were the 23mm tire days) and they were sketched out by the potholes and train tracks whereas I was super confident and hitting everything without needing to scrub speed. On paper the front shocks are overkill but I just remember it being super plush hopping curbs, rolling over potholes, etc. RS SIDs 100mm on 26x2.0 tires, IIRC.
Similar. Before getting my belt bike I commuted a hard-tail mtn bike, which handles dubious pavement, light rail tracks, wet striping, etc. with none of the beating one takes on a standard road bike (the bike itself taking less of a beating as well).
Funny how, presuming a relatively short commute of a few miles, one learns every pavement quirk on the route, plus those intersections where folks tend to blow though the stop. Whee!