Originally Posted by
AdamDZ
I have a carbon Specialized Roubaix with Apex group. I love this bike for weekend rides but I wouldn't commute on it for these reasons:
1) Has no ability to carry any significant cargo. I don't like to carry backpacks except a Camelbak when mountain biking.
2) It's just way too nice to expose it to the roughness of my daily commute.
3) It's way to fast while having too little grip and too little braking power for city traffic.
4) Tires way too thin for grates, road plates, manholes, bridge gaps, etc.
5) Theft magnet???
This all sounds fairly logical!
I once punctured two road bike tires in rapid succession (within one second) when I tried to roll over a sharp edged road plate. Mtb tires were made more for sharp edged rocks and burred roots, than narrower and thinner road bike tires.
Originally Posted by
spare_wheel
1. Many roubaix models can take fenders and a rack.
2. Its trivial to buff or wax out scratches on carbon. Dings and scratches on paint not so much.
3. Unless you are buying a race level bike, the wheels shold not be a problem. The stock wheels on the roubaix comps also appear on the sirrus hybrids (the carbon one is basically a roubaix with a flat bar).
4. Personal preference. I have commuted on 23s and 25s for about a decade. Before that I commuted on knobbies.
5. This is true for any nice bike. In my city a soma fab, gunnar, or surly are far more likely to be theft magnets than dorky hard to fence carbon commuters.
This all sounds fairly logical too!
I almost never see rack or fender mounts on higher end road bikes, unless they're more touring oriented road bikes. Of course, there are the lower tiered entry level road bikes that have eyelets for both rack and fenders.