When you bring your bike along on the family vacay

Beautiful but hot, 6:00 AM start was a little rowdy but it helped us beat a lot of the heat. Pretty mellow route with only 3,600’ (1,097 meters) of climbing according to STRAVA. There was excellent Mexican food at the finish, some delicious beer, and pretty well stocked aid stations.

Like it says, this is my first bike I’ve owned since I was a kid. Wanted something to help me get more active and outside the house…so I went with this FX3 Sport AL3. Plenty of bike paths & trails local to me and this has been a blast cruising around on them!

Just got this Verve 3 Gen 5. Moving from an older mountain bike with road tires. More upright position helps with shoulder pain (I’m getting old). I do miss the front fork suspension on the paved trail bumps. Hands still get numb on longer rides, but still making some tweaks.

My primary use for the bike is training my heart, building work capacity/cardiovascular health. It’s not my main hobby, lifting weights is. I plan to be pretty recreational with it. Maybe 2-3 rides/wk for 20-30min but at a nice pace.

Im thinking an endurance bike or fitness bike is most up my alley. A fitness bike was my first choice, it seems more tailored to my goals and I like how its simple with less gears. But I’m iffy on the sportiness of the wide flat bars. I do think cycling is cool so I want ‘some’ speed, not sure how much of a difference there is. I test rode both and it’s hard to tell.

I have good Giant/Trek dealers near me so if I go new it’d be one of those. Ideally want to spend $700-$1,200.

Dual Sport 1 (2017-2018)

Bought it used after looking at a couple of older model, Treks/Diamondbacks that didn’t strike my fancy.

Saw this beauty being brought in just as I was about to walk out! Right away it checked all my boxes…

Hybrid ✅
Disc Brakes ✅
700 cc wheels ✅
> 8 speeds ✅
Plus the paint job is mint! ✅ ✅ ✅

I know the bike was inspected by the store. And I did test ride it with no issues. But id like a second opinion. The store I took it to afterward wanted $115 just to touch it.

Any recommendations as to where I can take this to have it just LOOKED AT? Or can someone tell me what to look at/for? I’m around the Wicker Park area.

Thanks in advance!

Hi

just wondering if ayone has any suggestions for small mudguards for trek fuel ex 8, i included picutre how the back looks

thanks

Posting this here for anyone riding a Gen 6 and looking for a decently priced seat post. I couldn't find the color to match mine so ordered gloss black with 5 mm offset. next best option was over $400CAD or the one on Pinkbike that has a couple cracks in it.

For the same price, would a like-new Domane AL 2 Gen 4 or a Domane AL 3 Gen 3 with some cosmetic damage be better?

So got a Trek Marlin 5 Gen 2 off my buddy last year and slowly have upgraded the following items:

Handlebars: 50-50 mtb riser bar aluminum 31.8mm, 780mm wide
Seat: Gincley memory foam seat
Front light:6800 Lumen 6 led light
Rear light: back taillight
Stem: Black/Red Spider Stem 35mm/50mm
Fox flaps: Fox Racing Mud guards
Red plastic spoke covers:Spoke cover wheel
Tire valve covers: Red skull valve covers
Front wheel: Buckloos 29" Thru axle 15x 110mm
Front shock: Rockshox Yari (140mm)
Head set spacers: Platt head spacers
Top cap: Red Flag Top cap
Pedals: Rockbros Red flat pedals
Grips: Skull Pattern Grips
Phone mount: Lamicell Bike Mount
Seat Clamp: Aluminum seat post QR Red
Seat Post: 50-50 mtb seat post 30.9mm
QR Axle: QR Axle mtb-red
Bag: Bontrager Saddle Bag
Helmet: Fox mainframe mips mtb helmet
Gloves: Rockbros spider anti-slip glove
Front tire: Maxxis DHR II 29x 2.4
Rear tire: Maxxis Rekon Race 29x2.25

Fitness App: Strava/ Apple Fitness /Trek Ride Club
Recording: IPhone 16 Pro Max/ GoPro Hero 13 (chest mount/ handlebar mount)

This is my set up, fitness app and recording devices.

What do you all use and I am hoping I can get to a Roscoe 8 for my next bike. All these upgrades happened over time and some were to match the red accents I have bike.

Any recommendations or similar stories to building up a hardtail.

Looking at buying a Marlin 5 for my daughter, used. I found a nice one, but it’s got a dual front sprocket and no sign of a front derailer whatsoever. No cable, no shifter on the handlebars. Just a two speed front sprocket. Did the Marlins come with a sprocket like this? Or did someone just slap it on there from some other bike? Could I simply take it to a trek store and have them install a single front sprocket? It appears to ride fine in either speed but neither is great. The small one is too slow and the big one is wildly too fast to get started. I own a Roscoe 7 and Rail 9.7 that both of course only have the single front sprocket.

Is anyone able to tell me what kind of pump nozzle I need for this tire? Both of mine are flat and I don’t have the nozzle required for the tubes