Taste

Great looking bike, hope you enjoy it!

spare_wheel

I test road one of these and found that the roller brakes took almost twice the distance to skid to a stop as hydraulics. Considering that at one point these bikes switched to disc brakes its mind-boggling that Trek went back to rollers. On a commuter emergency stopping distance is the single most important safety variable.

bmorey

That's the way they are designed. Properly used they don't take twice as long as other braking systems to stop; granted, it does take a week or so to adapt to them. They're designed to brake comparatively gently (to avoid skids) then bite hard. A couple of times I've almost become unbalanced they stopped so hard. Recently I did a few bike tours around central European cities and some bikes had v-brakes. I found them a p-i-a and was greatly relieved to get back to my roller brakes. Apart from an annual injection of grease they are maintenance free, unaffected by water and mud -- and silent.

Incidentally hub gears are popular in Europe. I reckon 1/3 of the bikes I saw had them. And they use roller brakes (or local equivalent).

spare_wheel

rollers and v-brakes have no where near the stopping power of a disc brake. and the last thing anyone wants to do is to brake gently during an emergency stop. i have avoided serious injury due to the stopping power of hydraulic disc brakes. in several cases the rear of my bike lifted off the ground due to the grip of the front disc brake.

bmorey

Here's an annoying fault -- after 2.5 years my rear guard has split. It's alloy:



My riding is 50/50 smooth road and trail. I'm guessing a genuine Trek guard is expensive so I might try repairing it with epoxy and a thin metal brace. Or perhaps a non-Trek guard (genuine Trek is expensive I should think). I don't think I'd go without guards, daggy-looking as they are.