[Linus]

Originally Posted by shadows papa

Awesome thread Linus! Anyone who is around me for any length of time is sure to find out that I LOVE all things bicycle! Hopefully when the weather cools down a bit here and I can figure out some system of book organization where I don't have to carry a 40 lbs. backpack each way, I will ride my bike back and forth to school a couple of days a week. We only live 4 miles from the campus, making it a nice little leg stretcher. This Saturday I am doing a 25 mile ride to benefit WoundedWarriors.org and the 11 mile mountain bike race in October is to benefit RideforReading.org. I like to ride for charity,for fun,for fitness,and just to RIDE. I have been seriously curtailed this year with my school commitments but I am,and always will be, a crackhead cyclist. I love to ride, find bikes for other people, work on bikes,and watch bike racing. I currently have a 1991 GT Timberline mountain bike, a 1990 Trek 1200 road bike and a 2005 Trek 1000 Discovery Edition road bike. One of these days,when time permits, I have a winter project in mind to build a bike or two or three from the frame up, full carbon fiber rigs that will fly down the road and cut the wind like a knife!! For now I ride when time permits and enjoy tearing through the woods on a mountain bike trail, at least once a week during a GOOD week!

Hehe.. you could always turn one of those bikes (probably the 1200 or the Timberline) into a single speed winter bike (with winter tires). I did that to my old MTB and it's awesome.

As for riding with 40lbs of stuff, take a look at Ortleib panniers and seriously consider getting a back rack on your bike. You back will thank you. The MTB should have the eyelets for this if the 1200 doesn't.