Originally Posted by
adamrice
It'll be very hard to reduce your commute time significantly by getting a different bike, but very easy to increase your commute time by getting a flat, so consider tougher tires, or tubeless tires with sealant, or tubes with sealant. I get paid hourly, and the time I've lost to flats on my commute would pay for some really nice tires (in the beforetime, when I was bike commuting). Looking at the stock tires on your bike, I would want fatter tires: I've got 32s on my commuter, which might not fit on that bike.
Consider buying duplicates of stuff to leave at your workplace so you don't need to carry it on your bike. Really good headlight and taillight. Fenders. I'm a convert to disc brakes, especially for riding in foul weather. Obviously there's no way to adapt discs to your current bike.
That's the thing! My current commuter isn't optimal for this kind of distance. Fairly upright, slow in the wind, heavy uphill and somehow doesn't 'fly' as nice as the road bike does. My road bike is quite nice for that commute, but as you said: I too would like disc brakes (hydraulic), hub dynamo for lights, potentially tubeless. That's where everything starts
