Hey all...

I'm getting back into riding after far too long away from my joy. Living in Florida where riding is akin to a deathwish will do that to you.

Anyway, when I was in shape I would ride 500+ miles a week road (Northern Virginia). I road and still have a heavily upgraded Bridgestone RB-2. However, I now live on Martha's Vineyard where I am going to be moving between roads, dirt roads and trails with regularity and when you couple that with my increased weight of 250 (dropping) the RB-2 wouldn't last long. However, even at 4% body fat I was over 200lbs...so I'll never be exactly petite (I'm a shade over 6' and have a 29" inseam and tree stumps for legs).

So, for the past few months I've been riding a circa 1994ish Fuji Supreme hybrid which has 36 hole wheels and 700x38 tires. Needless to say I'm not leaving a trail of smoke behind me, but it has also taken everything I've thrown at it. While I'll never have the time to do 500 a week...I'm back on a reasonable 100 a week pace and would like a bit of an upgrade...something that might allow me from time to time to go longer distances and maybe average more than a pokey 12 - 14 mph.

I've read many good things about the Treks and hybrids, but some are directed more at the cross between road and city and some others are a bit too much towards just being road bikes with upright bars and slightly wider tires.

Is the Trek up for the abuse I'm going to put it through. Will its wheels hold? I'm assuming that the strength of wheels has improved to compensate for less spokes over the past 20 years.

Obviously, I'm going to take whatever I'm looking at for a decent ride, but I've always found that it can be weeks before you really bond with a bike.

if not the Trek 7.3+ what would you all recommend?