RGMN

My fast commuter was a Univega Modo frame (Columbus Thron tubes) that I purchase from someone who converted it to be an "old school" cyclocross bike. I, of course, immediately lost the front fork over a series of moves, so I had a frame with cantilevers on the rear and a carbon fork with a standard road caliper on the front. Looked weird but worked. The bike was in almost continuous use for over 19 years, accumulating almost 60k miles on it. It was a road bike at first, later it became my fast commuter, and it was usually the bike on the trainer. Loved that frame, but I knew the commuting was taking a toll on it. It owes me nothing.

As far as using the Ritchey for commuting, I slap a post mounted rack on the seatpost and off I go. That rack has scratched the heck out of the seat post (no real loss, I really dislike the single bolt clamp and wanted to replace it to get rid of a creak) but the commute includes a couple of miles of crushed limestone trails. Dust from that trail is working its way into everything, and I now need to replace a headset bearing, likely the RD, and I fear it may be getting into the Ergopower shifters as I am starting to have an issue with the left shifter. I have some clip-on fenders that I have used but I find that I get just a messy with them on as without them, and the bike actually seems cleaner without them after riding in the rain, so I just leave them off. And they didn't seem to help with the dust from the trail.

I suspect a Surly Cross-Check will be joining the stable shortly as a commuter.