Well I have to say, now having ours for a couple of weeks, we LOVE them. Really ride great, and the shifting is wonderful. Now understand, this is our first time with a multi-speed trigger shifter, but they sure beat the heck out of the twist shifters in our opinion. So easy to use, and has a very positive feel. The suspension seems to work well, though it may be a bit stiff being so new. We have been riding along a number of the C&O Canals bike paths in MD & WV, which are predominantly "smooth" gravel (from all the tons of cyclists in the past), and it has been very easy to navigate.

We have a pair of Shift 3 WSD's, and since there is no water bottle cage mounting on the down bar, we got a couple of M-Wave cages from Walmart online for $9.99 each, (actually distributed by Cycle Forge Group - http://www.cyclefg.com/shop/product....0&cat=0&page=1 ) and they work very well. I originally tried a couple of "standard style" cages that required screw mounting, but in this case mounted them with a couple of hose clamps with rubber under them and covered them with black electrical tape. They actually looked pretty good, but the tape always wanted to come off. With the M-Wave cages, they have a camlock type clamp (like the clamp that holds the seat post tight). Add some rubber padding under the clamps and wallah! They work fine. Very well made and designed, and rugged to boot. Will work on handlebars or down tubes. Will take up to just about a 2 inch diameter down tube and smaller. I highly recommend it, and for the price, how can you go wrong?

We "may have a couple of issues" regarding the saddles and tires we got with our bikes. We got 2 different saddles on 2 identical bikes. One has the elastomer vibration dampeners (shocks) on each side of the rear of the saddle (along with the 9 underside saddle spring suspension) and foam padding, and the other has no elastomer vibration dampeners (shocks) at all. The one with the shocks is dark brown with 3 gold bars and gold stitching, the one with out the shocks is black with silver bars and silver stitching, and has no elastomer shocks at all. Neither saddle has the rear LED light mentioned in the description. Sounds like old stock to me. It doesn't make sense. The newly added Shift info on the Trek site says the Shift 3 is supposed to come with a "Bontrager Suburbia FIT w/super-soft padding" saddle. To quote Bontrager's website for Suburbia (there is no FIT listed): Featuring the same D2 dual compound padding and 9-spring support as the Boulevard, Suburbia takes luxury to the next level by including vibration damping elastomers and a built-in rear light. It's comfort and safety in one convenient package. Does anyone know what the "FIT" is?

Second, the tires shown on the Trek website for the Shift 3 WSD state that they should be, and again I quote: "Bontrager H5 Hard-Case Ultimate, 26x2.0". However when you look at the specs for H5 on Bontrager, there is NO 26x2.0 tire available in Ultimate. So what gives? My tires do not state anything relating to "Ultimate" or "Plus" on the sidewalls. Only Hard-Case Lite and Plus are shown in a 2.0 size. See http://bontrager.com/model/09389 Again, what gives. It almost seems like they are equipping the bikes with whatever parts they have on hand, even if your model is supposed to come with upgraded items, and you are essentially paying for them, even if you don't get them.

I apologize for making this post so long, but since there don't seem to be any Shift users out there, I thought that this would be a good forum to discuss what I have encountered. I do plan to talk to Trek directly, if my e-mail post to them does not get answered.

BikeForums is a great site to "vent" and discuss our experiences, and I welcome any and all insight to what we have encountered.

All in all, we still love our Trek Shift 3 WSD's, and are very happy with the bikes overall.

Alan