gunsitsme

Hello all. I have been lurking here for a while and finally decided to join. I am a new rider and am riding my first "longer" ride in August, 93 miles for the Pan Mass Challenge. I bought a bike a few months ago to make sure that I actually enjoyed riding. It is a Trek 420 which to me is fine, since I know only a little bit about bikes. A friend of mine tells me that I am crazy to ride this "tank" 93 miles and should consider moving up to a more recent and lighter bike. Is this the general consensus around here?

I don't have a ton of money to get a new bike, but can probably swing 500-550 for a nice usd road bike. I recently found this one on Craigs List and have heard good things about some of the components. What do you guys think? Is this a good deal? Should I go look at it/ride it?

Thanks so much!

alanbikehouston

The price seems a bit high for a bike of that age. What exactly don't you like about your current bike?

Assuming that your current bike fits you well, you can improve it for relatively little money. The single biggest improvement on a bike is usually the tires. If your current wheels are in poor condition, or are much heavier than most, a new pair of wheels can also improve the performance of your bike.

Don't obsess about the weight of your bike. On a level road, two bikes with equal tires and equal wheels will perform about equally well, even if one weighs nineteen pounds, and the other weighs twenty-five pounds. And, on a level course, a nineteen pound bike with mediocre tires and mediocre wheels may ride less well than a 25 pound bike with first class tires and wheels.

And, even while in a hilly area, the difference in bike weight is less important than most folks think. A 180 pound rider with a 20 pound bike is pushing a 200 pound load up the hill. If he was on a 25 pound bike, he would be pushing a 205 pound load up the hill. There is only about a 3% difference in the total load. That 3% difference would be a "life or death" issue for a professional cyclist for whom a gain of ten seconds is the difference between winning and losing. That same 3% difference for a fitness rider simply means you will work a tiny bit harder,and get fit a bit faster. There is a reason that weightlifters don't spend much time lifting 19 pound barbells...not much of a work out.

Ostuni

the general consensus around here is that there almost is never a general consensus about anything....

you may have answered your own question: you said you enjoy the bike, and it is fine....

what is the longest distance you've ridden on your trek? if you can do 20-30 miles comfortably and enjoy it, then it would be silly to upgrade just for the 93-mile ride... you likely will stop to eat/stretch every 20-30 miles, so just think of the 93-mile ride as a series of shorter rides...

your fitness and comfort on the bike are more important that its weight, grupppo, etc...

keep it clean, well-maintained, running smoothly, etc. - and like alan says, good rubber properly inflated - and keep riding it until you have better reason to upgrade than a friend's derogatory crack about it being a 'tank'...

give it a little more time... if you get 'the disease' that is a raging epidemic around here, then there will be all kinds of options and ideas about what to upgrade...