blackvans1234

Is it unreasonable to want to start commuting with a road bike, rack and panniers, and remove the rack when im doing road rides?

My current setup is a Specialized Secteur.
I like the idea of commuting, but It seems a little inconvienent to have to remove the rack every few days.

Opinions?

I guess a backpack is a possible option...

blackvans1234

Im hoping to commute to school if possible, about 8-10 miles each way.

stephendm

My wife and I commute on road bikes and leave our racks on permanently. The best rack we have found is the Axiom Streamliner Pro Tour INOX, and it fits well on her Cannondale CAAD9.

We don't take the racks off when we road ride. We just take the weight penalty; we're slow anyways so we don't really care. Think of it like a medicine ball for your bike; just take it off for the organized races and centuries and you'll be so much faster than you anticipated. :-)



Keep us posted on what solution you find. We've found our road bikes to be good commuters.

blakcloud

What about a seat post rack? Limited weight capacity but you most likely wont exceed it for commuting.

rms13

I commute on my Cross Check with rack and panniers. I do a couple of morning rides with roadie coworkers before work during the week. I take my panniers off and leave the rack on. I don't think it slows me down too much and it adds to the aggravation of the guys who are on carbon/ light weight alum road bike and lagging behind me the whole ride

exile

It's your bike, so don't worry to much about it. If you are primarily a commuter and only do road rides on the weekends I don't think it would matter much whether you leave the rack on or off.

the sci guy 

taking the rack off would be more a pain the butt than it's worth. take the extra pound and ride with it.

downtube42

This. Adds to your legend.

arex

A rack doesn't weigh very much...leave it on.

ThermionicScott 

Another vote for just leaving the rack on and leaving everyone in your dust anyway.

blue9

Regardless of whether you take the rack off on the weekends, DEFINITELY commute by bike!

FrenchFit 

I have a Tubus Fly on one of my road bikes, (copper/bronze colored on a metallic brown bike), works fine with panniers and I really don't notice it unloaded when climbing, it's like 370g. Light and inward sloping / narrow at the top, looks pretty hot on the bike - for a rack. 40lb capacity, amazing. A great compromise, except for the price & you can't easily use a trunk bag with it. Also, you need to be certain there is enough chain stay length to avoid heel strike. Here's one fairly good representation of how they look installed: https://www.flickr.com/photos/33791770@N00/3866150691/

fietsbob

Big saddle bag sits on racks nicely.. I have a Carradice Super C saddle Bag.

thenomad

Can you undo 4 bolts without having fit? Should be easy.
If you get an older alloy rack they weigh very little. Leave it on and ride harder.

Timber_8

I ride a Specialized Sectur Elite with a Topeak quick track system. I also do century and double century rides and never take the rack off. The weight of an aluminum rack is not going to have any burden on your rides. I am going to assume you not riding an all carbon fiber bicycle. I would not rack a full carbon fiber bicycle.

bloomrae

I did my commute on a road bike with a backpack through the fall and winter. When it started getting warmer this spring I wanted to ditch the backpack so I put a rack on my Trek 1.2 road bike. I didn't have any issues with the set up, but ultimately took the rack off because I wanted the lighter bike back. I have a dedicated commuter now ( an old converted mountain bike ) and the road bike for joy rides. I don't race and I'm not fast, but I enjoy the lighter bike. I tend to carry more than I need and I kept overloading the bike.

tsl

All the choices have been examined here. Since I started bike commuting seven years ago, I've done them all.

Backpack is too hot and sweaty.

Yes, it's only four screws to remove the rack. It's not hard at all. But removing and replacing it twice a week gets old after a while.

Yes, leaving it on for club rides and teaching everyone else what it means to HTFU is satisfying. And on those rare occasions when I was dropped, I had a credible excuse.

If you can get away with it (and can afford it) the Tubus Airy is very narrow, very minimalist rack that's incredibly light and tucks in for better aero. The Axiom Streamliner Road DLS rack is pretty credible, much cheaper, knock-off of the Tubus Airy.

Those were really only short-term solutions. Long-term, what has worked best for me is N+1.

I now have two racked and full-fendered roadies for commuting and grocery getting, and two others that remain naked for club, recreational, and other rides.

FWIW, the full fenders and rack don't cost me much in terms of time. On my 16½ mile long loop to work, I lose about two minutes with fenders, rack, and full panniers. On my shortened 13 mile loop home, it's about a minute and a half.

calyth

There's definitely no problem as long as you can get a rack for it. If there's no braze-on, and you have to use the seatpost racks, careful on not putting too much weight.

Though schools are generally notorious for bike theft...

Icculus21

There's some useful insight in here that may help... https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...-for-commuting

I thought a particularly good idea was seatpost bags; topeak makes a quick-release one. I haven't been bike-commuting for that long and I've been using a backpack, but it seems like most people end up moving away from backpacks.

Detours rear cycle bag -
https://www.amazon.com/Detours-23301-...tpost+bag+bike

Topeak DynaPack Bicycle Seat Post Mount Bag with Fixer
https://www.amazon.com/Topeak-DynaPac...tpost+bag+bike

PaulRivers

The #1 question is - where are you commuting to? If you're commuting to work, and you have space at work to store stuff, the best solution is to just leave your change of clothes at work. Shoes never need to be washed, pants only need to be washed infrequently, in an office job a shirt doesn't need to be washed daily. Though obviously that depends on your body type and the type of work you're doing (sitting at a desk in air conditioning is obviously different than working outside in heat), etc etc.

If you're not biking every single day (are you biking in the rain?) you can exchange clothes on days you drive in.

It's cool Icculus21 copied my suggestions in his thread, those would work if you could, say, leave shoes and pants at work but needed a new shirt every day.

But mostly - in my opinion - I'd just put a rack on the bike. Your average guy weighs around 200lbs. Your bike weighs around 20 pounds - so we're talking 220lbs total.

A Topeak rack weights about 1.6 lbs -
https://www.topeak.com/products/Racks/explorer_29er

You can get something lighter that weighs about 1.2lbs (Blackburn EX-1) -
https://www.amazon.com/Blackburn-EX-1...blackburn+ex-1

If you really want to spent some money Tubus sells expensive lightweight rack, look for the titanium one -
https://www.bikebagshop.com/tubus-rear-racks-c-30.html

It's not *that* hard to remove a rack - it's just 4 bolts - but usually it's just not worth the hassle. Small changes in weight are nearly insignificant in affecting your speed on the bike.

A backpack, on the other hand, is a real pain. With drop bars it's difficult to lean over with the backpack. If it's warm out anything touching your back will making your body sweaty - my cousin did it and everywhere he went he'd show up with his back where the backpack was completely soaked through the shirt in sweat.

If you're just carrying clothes (not a laptop), then you don't really need panniers either, just a decent size rear back on the rack is enough to carry even my shoes, jeans, and shirt to work.

EDIT: I didn't realize this second post was from you -
"Im hoping to commute to school if possible, about 8-10 miles each way."

Are you also carrying books and stuff like that for school?

Icculus21

Didn't mean to steal any thunder! Just thought they were good suggestions and wanted to spread the wealth. I intentionally wrote "I thought a pretty good idea was..." in order to clarify that I did not come up with the original suggestion.

Drew Eckhardt 

No.

Yes, leave it.

Do the math. At a 145 pound racing weight atop a bike approaching the 15 pound UCI minimum dropping a pound of rack can make you at most 161/160 = 1.0063 times faster or 0.63% up the steepest hills.

The impact will be proportionally lower if you and your bike are larger.

It'll also be unmeasurable on level ground.

That gets pretty unpleasant.

I resisted a rack and panniers for 17 years and many miles (not until I increased my one-way commute from 10 to 12 miles) and regret not caving in sooner - it's so much more comfortable.

Here's my Litespeed.

For aesthetic reasons:
My seatpost, lock, and derailleur hardware are titanium.
My aluminum water bottle cage and front derailleur fork are titanium colored.

The sacrifice was entirely worthwhile.



I tried four seatpost racks without finding one where the clamp didn't rub on my thighs and the side frames kept a pannier out of the spokes before giving up and resorting to P-clamps. It works great, although I've been meaning to have some eyelets welded on.