anaheim flash

how fred can it get? can it pull a trailer? for some reason, this bike has been on my mind, but wondering if it (or any other road-style) can be used for year round commute duty, and all that entails

jagged

For year-round you need fenders, and I bet it will be tough to put fenders through those road bike brakes.

The Trek 1.2 is a fun bike for disease rides and relaxing weekends. It could be a commuter--any bike could be--but commuting isn't its comparative advantage.

tsl

Actually, the 1.2 has eyelets for fenders. My 1000, the forerunner of the 1.2 takes fenders just fine. I use SKS P-35s on mine.

Here in Upstate NY, year-round service requires studded snow tires, which won't fit on the 1.2. In TX you should be fine.

anaheim flash

hey, i am talking rack, fenders, lights, the works.....no wool socks, tho....
and tsl, what is this "snow" you speak of.....

anaheim flash

wow, that's it? just, wow.....

tjspiel

If you're looking at a lower cost road bikes, the Giant OCR3 is similar and I know people have mounted full fenders on them. Not trying to talk you out of the Trek, just giving you another option.

FWIW I'd commute year round on my road bike if it could take 40 mm studded tires for the winter. As it is now I use it from about April through November and then switch to another bike.

As far as pulling a trailer goes, you'd probably want a triple. Don't know if that's standard on the 1.2 or not but the one I saw recently did have one.

I've pulled a trailer on my road bike but I have a double. Depending on how heavily loaded it was and the hills I had to climb it may not be adequate. Also with a heavily loaded trailer you'd have to be more concerned about brakes. I've never had a specific problem, just thinking out load.

anaheim flash

yes, the triple is standard on the 1.2, and where i live, we do not have hills. just gulf headwinds.
no matter which way i am going, it changes directions to be a headwind. it is not unusual for them to be 20+ some days, so a more aero could certainly help. my biggest worry is durability of a "road racer" type. i am on all kinds of road conditions (anywhere that is safest at the moment....road, path, and yes, sidewalks if i have to), and all kinds of weather conditions (tho i still do not know of this snow thing someone was talking of). about to buy a new bike, or do some massive work on my current one, and thinking out loud on a roadie type. and i will look into the giant.

tjspiel

If you planned on taking it over 10 foot drops then I'd worry about durability otherwise if it's typical street hazards like potholes and such you should be OK, - with a couple caveats:

1. Lower end road bikes often come with low end tires that may ride nice but have little or no flat protection.

2. If you're a bigger guy you might want to pay closer attention to the wheels they chose to put on the bike, especially the rear one. In my case they used Alex DA16 rims which are pretty beefy and the same one used on the Cross Check, - a bike that is often touted as a great commuter on this forum. I get the feeling though that rims and such selected for lower end road bikes vary from year to year, probably depending on what the manufacturer can get a good deal on.

tjspiel

Just thought I should expand on something I alluded to in the earlier post. There are people who think skinny tires and more frequent flats go hand in hand. While I don't agree with that I would say that running skinnier tires requires more due diligence to reduce the the risk of flats.

As I said earlier, the stock tires on a road bike may not offer much in terms of flat protection. Before buying the bike, find out which tire is on it then do a google search on the name of the tire and include the word "review" in the search. You'll find out quickly enough if that tire is susceptible to flats or not. If it is, you might be able to negotiate on a break in the price for a better tire with the LBS.

Also with skinny tires it's more important to make sure they are inflated to their proper pressure in order to avoid pinch flats.

mconlonx

I'd think you could pull a trailer with it, but it might not be the best bike for the job.

Check with your dealer to see how wide you can go on tires. If you end up buying the bike, ask if they'll swap the tires out, maybe with some kind of discount, on some 25mm Bontrager (trek house brand) Hard Case tires.

I don't know if there's a fender boss on the chainstay crossover, but an interesting braze-on showing up on the 2010 2.x bikes is what looks like a water bottle boss on the back of the seat tube above the derailleur clamp, which I assume is a fender mount of some kind.

The road bikes really seem like a very compromised commuter--unless you want the road bike for non-trailer, non-commuter duty, as an all-purpose bike you will also be doing sportier rides on, consider something else in the Trek lineup, like maybe an FX if you want sportier, the Portland or 520 if you're looking for drop bars. One of the biggest tragedies with them is that their cyclocross bike does not have rack eyelets at the top of the seatstays... even the 1.2 has them.