Originally Posted by
PaulRos
Zan,
Thanks for the reply! I thought about not posting here because I'm sure this forum's users are WAY past where I want to be so recommending an "inexpensive" bike may not be a practical question. Since I need to buy 2 bikes, I would love to stay at $500 per. Any advice is greatly appreciated. My LBS is recommending the TREK 7.2 or 7100.
Paul
Paul, if you really like the 7000 line of Trek bikes, I'd skip over the 7100 and go with at least a 7200. I have ridden both and the gearing differences are the most obvious difference. If you like to go faster, the 7200 has better gearing for more speed as well as lower pitched gears for hill climbing. The 7100 seemed to have the same gearing as my old Schwinn Ranger mountain bike. I always found myself spinning fast in final gear on flats. My brother made the same observation about the 7100 after riding it when I was testing out bikes. That was a deal breaker for me. If you are more of a low speed cruiser or take only shorter rides, the 7100 will do fine. I ended up settling on the 7200 and it has been flawless. If you don't mind the 7100's gearing, I'd get a 7000 and have a rigid fork. Hybrids are great bikes to get you back into biking, but doing 100 mile rides will be far more challenging on them than on a road bike.