Bike finally arrived today, excited like a five year old. It is my first new bike in 25 years, so I think I can be excused for being a little excited.

Trek 7.4 FX in Sepia (kind of a dark metallic bronze). Color looks much better in person than in pics. Bad picture attached...pretty darn happy.

Nice. Congrats on the new bike.

Feed it some miles and report back!

I like that color. It's different.

EXCELLENT! Another proud parent.

Thanks!

Quick ride tonight in the neighborhood after dinner w/my son...but we stopped short due to cable that has stretched badly or wasn't tightened properly on the front derailleur, so it wasn't shifting properly. So back to Trek store for an adjustment tomorrow. Given how lose the cable is (hangs away from the frame several inches) I have a feeling someone didn't tighten things down properly...my son (the real cyclist in the family) has never seen a front derailleur cable stretch so much so quickly.
But it was fun to have a quick night ride w/my new light (Cygolite 550) - worlds better than my previous light.

Onward...we are planning a nice 20 to 30 mile ride this weekend to continue the break-in.

Thanks. Now that I see it in person I'm feeling very good about it. There are some really nice tones and metallic sparkle when the sun hits it. And as you note, this color isn't something that I'm going to see on a lot of bikes.

beautiful fx sir!!! congrats and enjoy the miles stack up on your pretty new ride!

Congrats on your new beast.

Breaking in you or the bike?

Good point...a little bit of both is the most truthful response.

When I play tennis we joke about being careful to stop the warm up before it turns into the wear down.

Hey, your new bike is awesome! It's cool that your excited about buying your first new bike in a long time.

One thing I did with my hybrid: I lowered the headset to reduce the amount of wind resistance (from having your body tall and upright in the wind). There are two things you can do (you can even do them both, which I did). It's a 30 minute process with one tool:

1) You can lower the headset by simply moving the spacers from under the headset to above the headset. Your bike looks very upright, and you'll immediately notice a lower stance.

2) You can flip the headset. Instead of the angle slanting up (towards the sky) it will be fairly flat (to the ground). This is a common technique used by bike shops and the headsets are designed to be flipped.

Personally, I like my commuter to be more road bike-like in the riding stance.

Congrats! Now ride it like you stole it!

Funny - that was the first mod a friend suggested as well! (He didn't provide your detailed description, which I appreciate.) I've committed to myself to ride it "as-is" for the first couple of months before I start making any changes, but that change is on my list of ones to consider.

I did and I will! My brother asked if I wanted to do a night ride Tue/Wed/Thurs this week, but sadly I had to sadly beg off as I'm out all evening two nights already w/other activities, and even after many years of marriage my wife still likes to have me around after work. Lucky me...

Moment of truthiness - I need to confess.

I took my bike back to the Trek store to have the front-derailleur adjusted, I had assumed the cable had slipped due to an error by the tech who assembled it, as it wasn't shifting properly on my first ride after I got home w/it last night. (Had been fine in the parking lot at the Trek store.)

The Trek mechanic took the bike back to adjust it, and came out a few minutes later and asked me if I was the one who had put on the water bottle holder. I said yes, hackles rising on the back of my neck ("Uh oh...operator error message incoming!")...turns out that the bottle holder needed spacers, and mounted w/out them it was interfering w/the derailleur. DOH!

The guy was very nice about it, added the spacers for me gratis and sent me on my way w/out even rolling his eyes. Very nice customer experience, but I was a bit embarrassed.

Sounds like you've hooked up with a good bike shop.
Great looking bike. I really like the handle bars and grips on the 7.3 / 7.4.
Now get out there and be all that you can be.

With the derailleur now sorted out, I'd be keen to hear your impressions of the bike, after you have racked up some mileage.

Welcome to the 7.4 owner's club! I love that color. I didn't know they even came in that color. Like you were saying... ride it for a little while, enjoy and get use to it. The "Stem Flip" tip will get you more aero but it also might necessitate changing the angle of your seat etc. so... for now just ride and enjoy. In the mean time start searching YouTube for videos on various bike maintenance issues and you'll be up to speed in no time.

So how long have you had your 7.4? Have you made any mods to yours?

I've had mine for just a little over a year. Mostly weekend rides and my total weekend mileage is about 25-35 miles.

As far as mods go... I flipped the stem to get me in a more aero position. This necessitated adjusting my saddle to conform to my new position. I also got rid of the stock hand grips. They are supposed to make your hands more comfortable by distributing the pressure over a wider area on your hand but in my personal case I did not find that true. I put on a set of Lizard Skin grips. I also changed out the stock cassette for one that was geared a little higher. I did not need the 32 tooth sprocket and never used it so I changed it out to a 11-28 (which was about 1/3 lighter than the stock sprocket). I replaced the stock pedals that did not last that long with a pair of Shimano Saints (a huge improvement). I also changed out the stock KMC chain for a SRAM chain when I changed out the cassette. Right now I'm just about ready to replace the stock tires and I would like to move to 28mm tires this time (rather than the stock 32mm).

ooh ahh congrats! nice color! chocolaty! how do the tires smell?

What difference did that make?

Just a maintenance issue. No real difference otherwise. Although I do feel the SRAM is of a little higher quality.

You should be banned for posting bad picture of a pretty darn nice bike!

Congratulations...make her dirty!

Thanks for all the details...a biking friend at work also said "you're gonna want to replace that cassette." We'll see, since the majority of my hybrid biking is bounded by my wife's upper limits, I'm not sure that will be as much of an issue for me on rides when I'm using this bike.

Smell great, feel great, but taste is just so-so. Funny part is that my brother the bike nut repainted his Schwinn 10spd back in the 70's to a very similar color. When I show him the bike this weekend I know he is going to be pleasantly surprised to see the color.

I know...I'm not helping the Trek marketing team at all. Tomorrow is first ride, ~18 mile fun w/my wife and son on the beach/bay. Looking forward to seeing how it all feels.