2001-ish Cannondale silk road Caltrain bike

Update: we had an altercation between this bike and the house... everyone forgets their bike is on the roof of the car at least once right?  Well, it finally happened.  Screwed up the Open Pro CD wheels, so I put some reasonable alternatives on.  Need to swap out this racy 11-23 cassette with the 11-32 hillclimber.

Rolf Vector Pros with tubular Tufo Elites makes sense for a commuter bike, right? 

First iteration: normal road bike with drop bars; this is at Sea Otter 2002

I bought this frame a long time ago and used it as a regular road bike (did the death valley century on it, ouch), then as a geared commuter with bar-ends & bullhorns, then a single-speed commuter with bullhorns for riding to Urchin HQ in San Diego, then as a very comfortable and fast beach cruiser for Mission Beach boardwalk duty, and now, finally, as a Caltrain bike commuter/hillclimber, with very low gearing for going up Folsom St.  Don't seem to have any pics of the first version (normal road bike), but here are some other variants.

2nd iteration - ghetto "STI" shifting setup with bullhorns, bar-ends, and regular vintage levers... kinda cool

cockpit is wacky but works pretty well and is cheap-ish

in commuter guise - redundant lights, kinda ugly

Perhaps this is an ignominious state for a somewhat "serious" road frame, but you know what, it's really fun & comfortable to ride like this, and I think it looks sorta cool.

front 1" or so of suspension makes this thing super plush for boardwalk cruising

Wheels are pretty matchy -- Open Pro CDs front and rear -- but with a King front hub, and Paul WORD rear.  Front whee was found on ebay cheap, rear was built up by Mike.

Soma Sparrow riser bars are perfect for road bike->city bike conversions (but I like the SyCip Wonderbar even better)

on wet/hard sand, this thing actually works fine with 23mm tires

cool vintage Paul brake levers

But then, in Sept. 2011, we moved up onto Bernal Hill, which entails the ~18% Folsom St. grade.  Time for gears I guess.

Went with a 1x9 setup.  Dura-Ace 7700 crank w/ 42t chainring in front, 11-32 cassette in back, with XTR derailer from the parts bin.

Rolf Vigor is ridiculous overkill, but it's an orphan and it's handy, so oh well.  Thanks M. Gaiman!

XTR derailers from ~2004 are sharp

Paul Thumbie plus Shimano bar-end shifter make a super crisp shifting setup.  Dig it.

The curent state of this bike is my favorite.  Upright and comfortable like a cruiser, fast and efficient like a road bike, equally good on flats or hills, hassle-free flat pedals, and pretty light at 20.5 lbs.