Mountain bike v road bike

Commuting 18 miles is a LONG way. Distracted drivers will be late to work and rushing, putting on makeup, and making texts. Personally, I wouldn't consider it. Still...

Assuming you average 15mph on a road bike and 12mph on a mountain bike, your one-way rides would be 72 and 90 minutes respectively. I'm assuming you'll wear a backpack to carry dry clothes and maybe a laptop.

My suggestions are to get a used road bike in the $500-$1,200 range. That way, if it's stolen, it won't be a big financial hit. I'd also suggest you invest in the brightest rear light you can buy. I'd suggest the Moon Nebula ($41 on Amazon). It's bright and it has a wide spread to alert cars that you're on the road. I'd also recommend a strobe head light. Lots of people hate them, but they reduce the risk of someone pulling out in front of you or turning left into you as you are approaching them.

If you haven't ridden on the roads recently, you'll be appalled at how dangerous it has become just in the past several years.

Thanks for the feedback. Interesting on drivers - definitely have not ridden much recently so good point on safety concerns.
On the time aspect I was recently driving to meet someone for run or running here so really think it’s 75 mins cycle versus 35/40 min run plus 25/30 min commute - so don’t think massive difference.
And hybrid model so 3 maybe 4 days a week.
And yes yes understand getting home … but probably less rushed at that point.

I've bicycle commuted up to a few days per week in season for decades. Current commute is about 12 miles each way and it was about 16 from my previous house. My main bike for this is a road bike.

I've probably done it a handful of times on a mountain bike and other less obviously suitable bikes, but it's kind of silly to purchase something other than a road bike or road oriented hybrid with a road commute as the principle usage.

If had nothing but a mountain bike on hand and wanted to use it for this purpose, one could put a road oriented tire on it and do ok.

I would go with a road bike. They are faster and more efficient.

Don’t buy a bike at Kohls. I haven’t even fully assembled it and I suspect some parts are missing. Bike shop won’t help as I didn’t buy it from their ritzy shop.

Get an e-bike and you would be able to cut your commute time in half, you wouldn't even need to pedal if you tweak the firmware and you would be able to cruise along faster than a car.

Grav-grav bro

get a road or gravel/cx bike that can fit a decent size tire, but get it at a bike shop. NOTHING from a department store is going to be worth the trouble. Cheap components will break and not be fixable. Get something at least $1k and you'll be fine.

Yeah have been looking online at 2-3 bike stores around me. There are a few trek bikes between 1200-1500 that seem good. Any thoughts on trek road bikes? Did cannondale not used to have good bikes. Shops I looked at today did not carry them? Any other names that wil have good sturdy road bike for 1k-1500?

Don't ride that far that often on an MTB! The bars aren't designed for it, you'll get cyclist's palsy from too much pressure on the outside of your hands and wrists. Your hand will get weak and unable to grip things.

Cannondales are great. Shops will usually have accounts with different brands, but Specialized and Trek are the biggest ones in the U.S. Both brands make solid entry level bikes.

Things that might be nice to look for:

-1x drivetrain - only one front chainring and no front derailleur. It makes the bike simpler to maintain and clean

-clearance for up to 42c tires - very handy to put on gravel bike tires for commuting so you can have a little more stability and can run at lower pressure to not get pinch flats from potholes and stuff

-v-brakes or mechanical disc brakes - easier to adjust and maintain than hydraulic discs or cantilever rim brakes

-fairly wide drop bars - in my opinion it's much more comfortable to ride drop bars for long periods and have multiple hand positions.

None of those are deal breakers - the most important thing is to get the right size frame, which a local shop can assure you of. A lot of them will do a fitting for free when you buy something to adjust all the little things, which is very nice to have done.

if you are thinking of riding 18 flat miles on a mountain bike, you dont know what a mountain bike is.

Cannondale's are solid bikes. My wife has been on an R400 for close to 20 years. That model is a budget bike store so it's not the lightest frame and modest componentry (Sora) but it's always worked well with little fuss.