Commuting on A Crossbike.

With a 5 mile one-way commute you can ride anything you want. I once rode my full-suspension mountain bike to the subway, brought my bike with me downtown, rode it for a burrito run at lunch time, then took it back onto the subway and rode home from the station. It was nice not having to worry about riding over glass. This was about 12 miles round trip.

A cross bike is a nice way to go for an all-weather commuter as you will have plenty of tire clearance for fenders if you want. Properly set up cantilever brakes with good brake pads give great braking power wet or dry (Kool Stop salmon pads are the way to go here!).

You mention doing other rides with this bike other than commuting, though, and this may be enough to change the direction you are going with this bike. Are you doing serious road bike type rides with a group of friends who are also riding road bikes? Are you just putting in mileage after work or on the weekends and don't care about going balls-out fast or keeping up with your buddies? While it is true that you can keep up with roadies on a cyclocross bike, it is also true that you will have to work at it a little harder to do so. If you are trying to keep a minimalist stable of bikes and have a bike that you can commute with as well as doing weekend casual rides then I would suggest a cyclocross bike. If you need to keep up with your buddies then a proper road bike is the way to go. It's going to be less versatile than a cyclocross bike is but it will get the job done. I've commuted to work on my road bikes, 28 miles round trip, with a Camelbak Blowfish minus the water bladder to carry my stuff. No problems at all.

My friend does all her commuting and road riding on a Kona Jake. She's really happy with it - she bought hers after borrowing mine for a few months. That model has a steel fork, but the next one up, the Jake the Snake, has a carbon fork and costs about the same as the TCX 1. I think that carbon forks are really nice for putting in lots of road miles with skinny tires - really mellow road feel, but nice and snappy handling.

There are a few other options out there if you're only into riding on the road but want a rack and fenders. Another friend of mine has a Trek Portland for commuting and road riding. Salsa makes some road frames that will accept fenders and give you a much more fun ride than a "commuter" and so does Soma. A lot of people really like Surly, but I think it's easy to do better.

Commuter bikes are targeted at people who are intimidated by road bikes and won't be going off-road. If you're comfortable riding on drop bars, it's much better to buy a road bike that can accept a rack and fenders. Many cross bikes fit that bill too, and racing them is totally fun. If you really want to ride on flat bars, start with a mountain bike - it's a lot easier to build a fun, high-performance bike around a frame designed with fun and performance in mind than around one that got fobbed off on a junior engineer and is designed to be something that's not intimidating to someone who's out of shape.

Actually I was pondering the same thing myself but i went with a HT. But I have added drop bar ends, cross lever, areo brake lever, and 26x1 tires. It isnt as light as most cross/road bikes but I am able to beat most bike courier in my town on it. It probably would be cheaper too as the upgrades only total around 150. The bike also has a front suspension that a cross bike lacks. It has all the eyelets for racks. I do alot of riding on mine i have done 70 mile rides on it with no problems inless alot of hills are involved because of the weight. Oh I remember that sala already makes a bike like this with 29in tires so it can run 700c wheels but it sells for around 2000. The only problem with a true cross bike is getting the mounts as everyone else has mentioned you might want to look into getting a touring road bike as they will have the mounts and some even come with the rack already.

I am running a Shimano FC-R700 (34/50) compact crank on my Surly Cross Check. On the back I am running an 8spd MTB cassette. It is a bit of an unusual set up, but it works for me. I am also running 700x38 tires. Now, I would never try to hit the racer boy road ride up with my set up. My bike weighs many pounds north of the 16-18lb mark that many nice road rides are weighing in at these days. But I have been told by a few people who do frequent local roady events that I could easily hang with the slow group, or even the moderately paced group. And that would be without a change in tires. For reference, I normally cruise to work in the 18-22mph range on still days with no wind on pavement. Pack riding will ofcourse increase your speed. Riding in a pack at 25mph would put me in the top of my gearing, but I think I could do it, especially if I put on some quality 700x28 touring tires. Now riding in a pack of piranhas at 27-28mph would not be possible with my bike or my current physical fitness level.

BTW, the Cross Check is a great bike. A durable and flexible platform. The Salsa Casseroll would be my choice if I was doing strictly road riding and commuting. But I hit a lot of gravel roads since I live in one of the gravel road meccas of America. I think that a physically fit rider could easily hang with all but the fastest guys on the road if riding a Casseroll. Uber expensive road bikes are cool until you decide to hop a curb, take a short cut across a grass field, ride a gravel road, put on a fender....etc. I could go on forever, but I am biased.