I have a 2014 Trek Verve 3, and have been having a great time with it. The DS and Verve serve somewhat different purposes, but some of the differences really seem more like splitting hairs. The Verve aims more towards the comfort end of the spectrum, with a more upright seating position, riser handlebar, wider saddle, and suspension fork and seat post. The DS seems more aimed at speed, with a flat handlebar, and narrower saddle. Trek does pitch the DS as a "dual sport" bike, for both road and trail riding, while the Verve is marketed more as a recreation and city bike.

I've had my bike for about two months, and worked my way up to 20+ mile weekend rides. I bought the Verve because I wanted a more upright seating position and some trail riding capability. Since my wife has a mountain bike and prefers riding on trails rather than on streets, I wanted something that could fare reasonably well on trails. The hybrid bikes with knobby mountain bike tires I tried seemed slower than I'd like on pavement, which narrowed the choices down. The Verve 3 seemed to balance well with the speed on pavement, and enough tread and puncture resistance to ride on gravel.

Took the Verve on a couple of gravel and dirt trails over the weekend, and it did quite well. The back end started to fishtail a couple of times, but the bike never felt out of control. The Verve's tires are wider with some knobs on the side, but they're definitely not mountain bike tires.

Now that I'm working on longer distances, the riser handlebar seems a little on the high side. I'll try adjusting the angle, or maybe even look into a flat handlebar in the future if that doesn't work. For the time being though, I'm still getting used to the bike and have not done any fitting beyond the height adjustments the bike shop did when I bought it. My last outing on a road bike several years ago did not fare well with my back, and so far, I've not had any back pain at all with the Verve. So, I might be looking to see how low I can go before my back says something.

Up to this point, I've outfitted the bike more for errands and urban riding. I added a rear rack, handlebar bag, rear lights, a U-lock bracket, and a bell/compass. And now I'm looking into rear trunk bags.

With Trek's hybrid bikes, the two extremes are the FX and the Shift. The FX is more like a road bike with a flat handlebar, while the Shift is basically a Verve with 26" mountain bike tires.

Also, if you decide on the Verve 3, you might want to see if your dealer has any 2014 closeouts left. Just from the spec sheet, it looks like Trek downgraded a couple of the components on the 2015 Verve 3. http://www.bikeforums.net/hybrid-bic...015-model.html