sandymcmahon

I'm a guy in my mid-50s who has, to date, run to keep in shape. Six weeks ago I pushed things too hard and did some significant damage to the tendons around my left knee. Fortunately, I have a good Dr. and all is on the mend. However his stern message to me was "quit running and get a bike." When I heard this, I cringed because the last time that I did much biking was about 10 years ago, using borrowed cheap equipment, and was driven crazy by the gear shifts. So. . . . . two days after my Dr. told me to get a bike I was watching World Cup Soccer, and at the end there was one of the infamous LandRider infomercials. This seemed to answer my historic concerns and included a 30-day money back guarantee so I figured, what the hell! I got the bike 2 weeks ago - 34 lbs fully assembled, nice looking (my guess is that they've made some improvements since the Auto Bike days mentioned in some of the strings herein) - and started riding. LandRider says that it takes some time to get the AutoShift working, and it did. However even after working through this I found three things that irritated me: (1) I couldn't easily downshift when I wanted to, (2) When I had to stop for a stop sign (yes, I do stop for these on occasion) or a stop light, the bike automatically restarts at the lowest gear and forcing me to slowly work back through the gears, and (3) I often found myself winded because of inappropriate gearing for how I was riding.

Thanks to the advice on this Forum, I visited a local bike shop this morning and tried the Trek 7200 and 7.2 - bikes that are appropriate for my planned usage. What a world of difference! Bottom line - tomorrow morning I'm returning the LandRider for the refund and getting a Trek. Thanks!

jsharr

Welcome to biking and the Forums. I am a lifelong Trek rider, got my first one in the 80's. You made a good decision to go Trek, let us know which one you ended up with.

sandymcmahon

I got Trek 7.2FX - a fitness bike, since my normal riding patterns is 20-40 minutes early in the morning as a substitute for running. I've been riding the bike for a week and truly enjoy it.

sandymcmahon

I got Trek 7.2FX - a fitness bike, since my normal riding pattern is 20-40 minutes early in the morning as a substitute for running. I've been riding the bike for a week and truly enjoy it.