Hi,

I currently own a Giant OCR-2 road bike that I purchased new (4) years ago. I am now at the point where I am considering the purchase of another bike. This time, I am in the market for a “Duel Sport” type of a bike. This way, I’ll be able to ride on both the paved roads and some unpaved (single or two track) surfaces. I have pretty much narrowed it down to either the Trek DS 8.3 or the Giant Roam 1 (both have mechanical disc brakes). My real question is: which of these (2) bikes have the better (more reliable) components (derailleurs, crank, cassette, brakes, wheels…….)? I do realize that I will be test riding these (2) bikes, but with all things being equal, if it comes down to components, I would like to purchase the bike with the "better" components.

Thank you,

Tom

Wow, that's a somewhat difficult comparison. It's because they have pretty similar components but still different. First, for the Giant Roam 1, it depends on the year. 2012 is Shimano and 2011 is Sram. I'm not familliar enough with the Sram quality levels.
But, let's start this for the fun of it. haha. The Trek 8.3 DS has an Altus front derailleur while the 2011 Giant Roam 1 has an Acera which is superior. At the same time, some people say the front derailleur is not as crucial as the rear derailleur. One win for the Giant Roam 1.
The Trek 8.3 DS has a 48/38/28 crankset and 11-32T cassette while the Giant Roam 1 has a 48/36/26 and 11-34T cassette. I find a 36T middle chainring is more comfortable for a hilly area like mine so I would prefer that. And the 34T cog gets you a lower gear for climbing hills. Here, I'd want to give the win to the Giant Roam 1.
The Trek 8.3 DS has 700x38 tires while the Giant Roam 1 has 700x40 tires. For more cushy tires, the Giant Roam 1 wins again.
The Giant Roam 1 also has sealed hubs. Well, there's always the sealed vs. serviceable debate here but for a bike capable of going on trails, I'd give the win to the Giant Roam 1.
However, the Trek 8.3 DS has an 8 speed Acera drivetrain. If you wanted to go with friction shifting with Falcon shifters for example, I think 8 speeds would be more realistic because some people find friction shifting more finicky with 9 speeds.
Other than that, I'd give the nod to the Giant Roam 1 but since I'd prefer friction shifting to avoid having to have the derailleurs adjusted more often, I'd almost feel tempted to change the derailleurs and shifters to Deore. But, some people find Acera acceptable, just that if you can't adjust derailleurs easilly like me, you'd have to go to a shop once in a while to get them adjusted. Some stores offer free tune-ups though.

Other than that, as for the brakes I'm not sure if there's a major difference. Same thing for the frame geometry because one gives top tube length and the other effective top tube.

EDIT: I just noticed the Giant Roam 1 doesn't have a chainguard however.

Also, some people prefer Sram cassettes and KMC chains. The Giant Roam 1 has a Sram cassette and KMC chain but the Trek 8.3 DS has a Shimano cassette and the chain is not listed.

The Giant's looks are better in my opinion, but if it was me buying (T2012 vs G2012) the TREK wins, purely because of the crappy BB5 calipers on the Giant. I have used both Tektro and Avid BB5s and the both BB5s crapped themselves in under 1 and a half years. Warranty is out of the question. The Tektro are up to two years now and never fail.

Thanks for your responses!!

Both bikes that I am looking are 2012 models, they both have Shimano Acera shifters. Giant simply lists them as "Shimano Acera", Trek list them as "Shiman M360 Acera, 8-speed trigger". I have not been able to find out what/or if there are any differences between these (2) listings.

Thanks again for both your responses, they will be a great help in my decision making process,

Tom

With my continuing research to find a new bike, I have also come across the Specialized Crosstrail line of bikes https://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/...name=Multi+Use . I have noticed that this bike has different components then the Trek and the Giant models. Mainly the fork and crankset are the biggest differences that I have found. The Trek and Giant use the Shimano crankset while the Specialized uses the Suntour. As for the differences in the fork, the Trek and Giant use the same (SR Suntour NEX 4610 w/lockout), while the Specialized uses the SR Suntour SF11-NVX-DS. How great are these differences? Is one more durable then the other (better quality)?

Thank you,

Tom

I have been riding very hard on my Crosstrail and it still works great. I've done some minor single track with it and mainly rails2trails and it's been flawless. With that said, it isn't a light bike. Not sure of the weight of the others. But my 2010 model is about 33lbs.

With my ongoing search for a new bike, and much research (from here and other sources), it seems that I don’t really need a suspension fork for where I intend to ride. At first, it seemed like a good idea to have the suspension, but now I’m not so sure. Two bikes (among others) that I am considering are the Trek 7.3 FX and the 7.3 FX Disc. These two bikes are identical except for the brakes. One has conventional brakes, and the other has disc brake. There is a $120 difference between these two bikes. That seems like a lot of money for disc brakes. My question is: is it worth the price for the disc brake version of this bike?

Thanks,

Tom

I'm not an expert on disc brakes but I was told in a bike shop once that if you wanted a bike with acceptable disc brakes, you'd need an $800 bike.