Originally Posted by
cheezhed321
From a guy who had the same issue as you 2 months ago:
Not sure if you really need the 8.6 if your worried about cost. i bought my first bike 2 months ago.. the 8.3 and absolutely love it. I ride with groups and by myself on the road and hit trails that are close to where i live... Not sure i would be any better or happier if i was riding a 8.6. the one cool thing i see on it is the remote lockout but i dont have too much trouble using the manual one on mine.
Anyway, one thing I learned is the cost of the bike is not all you will pay. I paid $700 for my bike plus about another $600 in accessories. These were necessary parts too (not competition stuff): taillight- $200 (i bought a very high quality one b/c i feel its the most important thing when riding on road), bike CPU-$275 (you could def get a much cheaper one.. bout $40-$80), and about another $125 on tire pump, bottle cage, bike shorts (you will want these on longer rides), head light, helmet, saddle bag and bar ends (got all these cheap at Academy sports and Amazon). And i plan on buying more parts as i get better.
Long story short, even if you plan on riding for just commuting and light fitness like myself, the money you put into the bike wont stop at the purchase of the bike... especially if you fall in love with cycling like myself (which it sounds like you will if youre willing to buy such a good bike).
Hope this helps..
From one newbie to another
Yeah I agree with you, it's prob not a huge difference in function or form, its a matter of I kinda like the 8.6 little better than the others I looked at, maybe it's a looks thing for me, but the function is stellar as well. Is it worth $1000, maybe not, but then again, it was $1300+ so if you look at that way it's a really good deal right? We shopped hard and tried and tried to get a better price.
Plus trek is giving us $200 towards accessories, since we are buying two bikes, she is getting a 2014 Neko SLX and she loves it, the $200 gift card will get eaten up fast, so now it becomes an even better deal right? Yeah it's a game, but seemly we could be a little lucky here, with the right timing for now?
Trek Summer Sale collection - Trek Bicycle
And I know some others have paid more for lower models as some of these LBS are crazy high, but it is what it is. We have not bought a bike in 20+ years, this fixed pricing model on bikes seems crazy to me now. Seems it's a smaller margin then other industries and most of the LBS must make their money from service and accessories. We think it's a good price for the bikes we are buying.
This is an unusual deal and we probably would not be able to get it again, costs are going up next year by 30%, most LBS told us this. Plus yes we will be buying all types of accessories to go with the bikes, will it make our lives any better, you bet it will, just yesterday we took the old bikes on a 30 mile trek and we both can't wait to replace our 20+ year old bikes.
We both work very very hard for our money and trust me we talked about this for a long time before finally deciding on a budget as we do not want to ever buy bikes again in our lifetime, if that can even be helped. You know for sure it does not really matter what bikes you own, I grew up with junk and made it work.
I guess it's a matter of what you want, can afford makes you feel like working another day and helps you enjoy the crazy lives we all have. So to that end, I say yeah I prob could just get a entry level bike and be happy, but am lucky enough, worked hard and I can now afford the 8.6, so why not. Plus we will use our bikes as much as we can, that much is for sure. We are addicted to it now.
At least it's not $3000+, which I see in other models and for me that I can not justify, but they are super nice as well, just not for me. But I deff like the styling of Trek's over the Cannondales now and I own a USA made Cannondale.