Been all through this forum looking for information, comments and advice, but I can't find any really specific information about Trek Electric bikes, or more specifically the 7200+. I have been riding a Schwinn 10 speed off road bike for several years, but lately haven't been riding much due to old age and health problems.

I am taking delivery next week of a Trek 7200+ so any information or reviews from anyone on this forum would be more than welcome. Did I do a good thing, a dumb thing, or what? I'd really like to know.

After I get it and ride it awhile, I'll let y'all know how it goes.

I am definitely interested in hearing about the Treks range and hill climbing ability. I am considering recommending a Trek transport to my wife and it is a toss-up if I recommend the Trek electric or plan on installing the electrics myself.

I know that she would feel more comfortable not riding around on one of my science experiments. So, an of the shelf solution, like the Trek is attractive.

My LBS has a 2011 Trek+ Valencia with a nice price tag...$2100. After a test ride I can say the assist is unmistakeable, it will roll you up to 20 mph in a hurry.

I think you'll love it. Looking forward to your reviews. I debate buying this Valencia daily. My 6 mile commute is very hilly each way and sweating is a problem without showers. I didn't get to test ride hills but I'm guessing they'd be no problem. The range is the question mark.

Range depends on hills and how much you need to use the electric. On serious climbs / mountain passes, you can regenerate about half what it took you to get up on the downhill. You can't regenerate coming down small hills because you would come to a stop. My husband with COPD & lung lymphoma, a new hip, and 2 new knees rode the western half of the TransAm (Oregon coast to Colorado) on his Trek FX+. We averaged 43 miles a day, longest day was 71 miles. Only wore the battery completely down once, just as we arrived in town. It was dark and Don was using electric to keep the lights on. Even when the battery ran out, he was able to keep the lights on by gearing down really low and putting it in regenerate mode. In my journal, I kept a log of how many bars of electric he used each day (Trek's cyclemeter shows 8 bars of electric when fully charged, Don used anywhere from none to all 8 bars depending on the day's ride):


https://bicyclelife.topicwise.com/doc/yumadons1

Thanks for the information. Good to hear some stats from real experience. Hope to get my bike sometime this week and hope it's worth the money i spent.I won't be climbing any mountains, but there are some pretty good hills around here.

Hello Folks,
I was browsing around looking for a user group on Stromer and when I spotted you I paused to read all of the above posts with interest.
I have been looking for an e-bike for a couple of months and exploring all avenues that I could find. I am in a very hilly area. I also wanted a large rack over the rear wheel. The Trek Transport+ looked attractive and I purchased one on Tuesday. When I got it home I found it had insufficient power for my hills without a lot of effort. I was also disappointed that I had failed to note it was pedal assist only. I want both that and throttle in case I get lazy. My opinion on required effort was measured against an OHM that I rode in a test last week on hills steeper than mine and by comparison to the Transport+ the OHM flew! The OHM throttle was great on the steep hills and if I wanted to pedal it would take off like I had lit a fire under it. By comparison, my Transport+ required a lot of work and tired me. I have not ridden in a long time so that is a factor. The Trek battery was smaller than I expected even after looking at the pictures so long. My Trek controller was a small rectangular white body display that only dealt with the motor. It was not like the pictures in their web site - no odometer, speedometer, etc.
I like the Transport+ a lot and wish it would have been suitable for the things that I want - which of course are unique to me and no one else. The dealer refunded my purchase price and I have a Stromer Deluxe on order.It has twice the motor size and twice the battery capacity. Unlike some folks, I want a throttle option and it has that.
My Transport+ experience is a positive one, but for my geographical area it was less than optimal.
John Maguire
Seattle

John, what dealer did you order the Stromer from?

WC, I can report that MY hills were doable with the Ohm Urban, but the Focus Jarifa Speed is looking to be even better.

It was not available locally so I ordered from Motostrano.

Yuma,

Thanks for the link. I found the blog fascinating & ended up reading the whole thing yesterday. I have an FX+, but never thought that it would make it on a tour, as the range is always listed as 10-45 miles IIRC. It just seemed like it would never make it on the longer rides. I'm glad to see that you guys were able to put a lot more miles than that on it with no problems. I only use mine for riding to work/ errands. I use my regular bikes for recreational riding, but I do love the FX+.

Nice job on the blog by the way. Did you bring a keyboard for the iPad, or just type on the screen?

I test road a Trek FX yesterday and I must say that the ride put a few of my fears to rest. First was that I might not get a true bicycling experience. I did but it was better because at any time I could choose my level of effort. It was my first ride on an ebike so I have no other ebike to compare it to. The bike shop was mainly your everyday LBS and not a big ebike seller. The bike they were wanting to sell me was their demo bike at a little less than $2000. It appeared new in just about every way. I worry about the battery mostly and although it was fully charged when I began my ride it dropped one bar (out of 10 I believe) very quickly but no others in my 15 minute test ride. I'm wondering about this bike and is battery/motor sizes because of what I've discovered below.

I've been doing a little investigating about the Trek ebilke models, and I've found 3 for 2012, the 7200, FX and Velencia. I'm ruling out the 7200 because it has only the 33cell battery vs the 44 cell battery for the other two. It looks like the Velencia is setup a little more for commuting and the FX for fitness. However in 2011 I've seen some FX models with only 25Watt motors and 33 cell batteries. That may be a European model. Whatever the deal is I'm going to have to be very careful.

+took delivery of an FX+ about a week ago but weather just good enuf the last few days to get out and ride. Previously I was riding a Schwinn mountain bike 10 speed. There is a small hill close to home that took me down to the lowest gear on the Schwinn, slow enough that balance was a factor. On the FX+ I am able to ride the same hill without changing gears or losing speed simply by increasing the level of assist. So I am happy with the FX+ doing what I had hoped it would do when I purchased it. I did change the seat on it to a more comfortable sprung seat with a little more padding.

The other thing I researched before I decided to purchase the Bike, was if I would be able to ride it on the local bike trails. The most restrictive seemed to be the "Three Rivers Park District" trails here in the Twin Cities. The dealer told me they were absolutely not permitted. I contacted the Park District and was told that technically that was the rule but they are not enforcing it this year while they study the issue of e-bikes on the trails. I think the rule will probably be changed unless some idiot goes out there and tries to see how fast he can go and causes a problem. As a matter of fact, the FX+ motor assist stops at 20mph. There are bikers out there now going that fast and causing problems on regular bikes so I can't see why e-bikes like the FX+ should be any problem. Besides that, remove the battery and/or leave the controller turned off and it is just another bicycle. Unless you knew the bigger hub in the rear wheel was a motor, you wouldn't know it was anything other than a regular bike.

If you are on the MUP, just switch off the motor and don't add to the confusion.

Thanks MK313. The electric bike for the TransAm was Don's idea once it became apparent (riding his mtn bike in Bryce Canyon) that he wouldn't be able to do mountains. I kept the blog to show it could be done - without camping - and then thought it would be interesting to keep track of how much electric Don used each day. Part 2, Pueblo, CO to Hilton Head, SC coming Sept 1 Blog done with ipad, no keyboard.

Yuma I too read your blog word for word with great interest. Makes me wonder how many miles daily the new 48 volt bionx system with a spare battery would bring a you.


Thanks for taking the time.

When I demoed a trek FX+ at my LBS, I specifically asked about the battery. They said that they had been sent a new battery for it a little over a year ago, and that they had charged it every 4 months or so. This is pretty close to the recommended charge pattern for battery storage, so I figured it would be ok.

It can't hurt to ask...

Nice! If you're looking for readers, be sure to post the website back here once you are ready to get back on the road. I'd love to keep up with you guys' travels. I can live vicariously through you guys while sitting at work Good luck to you both on the trip.

Thanks 15 rms. We're kinda gadget challenged and went with the Trek cuz it's a major manufacturer with fixit shops all over the country, the one here in town being owned by one of my clients However, Dan the Bike Man in Corvallis, Oregon (Day 3 on blog) duly noted that Trek could fit 1/3 more cells in the battery if they gave up it's sleek, stylish look and squared it off some. And check out what John said in my guestbook about a kit he put on that gets him over 80 miles of hills or 150 on the flats:

<< Hi - I've been reading your blog and as I now ride an ebike because of a heart problem I thought I'd chime in (cardiologist said to keep heart rate below 70% of calculated max - at my age that's just under 110 - the slightest grade and it goes above that so without the motor I'd be walking more than riding). I rode from San Diego to Illinois on 2007 on a (non electric) touring bike and from San Francisco to Virginia Beach in 2009 on a (non electric again) recumbent. Both trips are blogged at crazyguyonabike.com under my username (JohninSD).

The ebike thing started about a year ago following an unfavorable diagnosis - but the main reason for my post here is to let others know that there are many options in the ebike world. I'm using a conversion kit from Ezee that drives the front wheel on my recumbent and another Ezee kit that drives the front wheel of my Co-Motion Americano. I've ridden the recumbent as far as 80 miles of hilly country on a single charge - and it should go close to 150 miles in flat terrain according to my Cycle Analyst - a gizmo that monitors the battery as I ride.
For more info than you can stand about ebikes I suggest looking at https://endless-sphere.com/forums/ and at https://www.bikeforums.net in the Electric Bike forum.

John in Sunny (sometimes) San Diego >>