Road Cycling - Trek 1000 advise please

I am looking for a bike to purchase for my grown son so we can ride together. At this point I do not want to put a lot of money into a bike for him. My questions are:
1. Is this a decent ride?
2. Tell me about Shimano Sora. Reliable? Shifts well?

Hi,
Fit is very important;the first question should be-does it fit? My take on the 1000 is it seems ok, I test rode one, and it didn't do anything weird. With most cheap bikes, replacing the saddle is a great idea. A saddle with titanium rails is a wonderful addition to an aluminum bike; especially for someone who has been off bikes for a while.

The Sora components are okay. There seems to be quite a price jump from bikes with Sora vs. ones with Tiagra or 105 components, so Sora is just about all you're going to find in the price range you're talking about.

I push my Trek 1000 pretty hard and find the Sora components do fine. I sometimes need to half click the front derailer (left brake lever) and pop the button when crossing the 1/2 way on the rear gears. I understand that this is normal for other component levels as well.

For the convenience of gears you can change using the brake levers, I reckon it is worth getting them. Soras have been just fine for my riding - I even blew my 2 mates on Colnagos (with all the bells and whistles) this last week, so it isn't all just about the bike !

Trek 1000's are great start up road bikes IMO. Sora is a good system also, all it lacks is shift-from-the drops capability, which for the start up rider shouldn't be a big problem. If you are still looking around, I suggest you check out a Specialized Allez, and a Giant OCR 3 for comparison.

does the trek 1000 have stright-gauge tubing? I was looking at the trek catalog, and it doesn't say anything about any type of butting at all. I don't mean to spread any meaningless slander, so someone correct me if I'm wrong.

If this is the case, I wouldn't go for the 1000, I'd go for the 1200, because that frame is more upgradable, in case your son ends up gettin into biking.

I know the 1000 is made in China and the 1200 and up is made in the USA. If I where going to buy a 1000 I would buy one of the other import bikes like KHS or Fuji. This is just my two cents.;)

Personally, I agree that the 1000 offers no inherent advantages over other low-end bikes, and you may pay a premium for the Trek name. I'm sure the frame is reliable, as are comparable Far Eastern frames from companies like Jamis and Fuji -- and the other brands may offer better value in their other parts selections.

I think the bottom line with a bike like this is the service from the bike shop, and with a $400-500 bike I'd choose on the basis of which shop offers better set-up and after-sale service.

Wheel setup is particularly critical on low-end bikes that come with machine-built wheels in the box. Many shops will just check them for trueness and then slap them on the bike, resulting in a high incidence of spoke-breaking other trouble down the road. A good shop will go over each wheel with a tensiometer, and also stress-relieve the spokes.

As for Sora, there's nothing wrong with it except the shifting limitation (can't shift from the drops) noted upthread, and the fact that the shifters are limited to an 8-speed cassette, so if a component upgrade is a future possibility I'd consider a 9-speed bike to start with.

RichC