The Glade 4.0

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/to ... s/8_3_ds/#

Let's just hope it's not too much bike for noob-ass self. Let me stress this is a starter bike for me and will be primarily used on pavement or graded dirt roads. I am abundantly aware it's not a "real" trail bike.

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Solid bike. I rode a Specialized Rockhopper Comp A1 FS doing some minor climbing and medium intermediate singletrack both in Colorado and Missouri. It was the same price range as that Trek but bikes advance so quickly, that's probably twice the bike I had (bought it in 1999). The real investment is the time with your *** in the saddle.

Good luck.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

Lord Doom,

As a concerned minion, I ask that you please take care when using this new invention. Those of us, who look to you for guidance, leadership and all that other stuff, would be lost without you.

That being said, I like it. I’ve never had a bike with disk brakes before.

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Raell Kromwell

Congrats and enjoy!

Trek's DS series are 'hybrid' bikes -- all-arounders mostly, and they are very highly regarded by riders of all skill levels as well-made. I was a bit concerned about the derailleurs on the 8.2 and the lack of disk brakes, so I ponied up the extra $100 for the 8.3. Plus, since there's going to be lots of pavement travel, the locking fork was a huge bonus. The 8.2 can be had for around $550.00. The biggest advantage to buying a Trek though, as opposed to anything REI has, is Trek is independent distributor only -- they don't sell to big-box retailers. Trek bikes require you to go to a cycle shop.

I'm not looking to do any trail riding in any real sense; and while we have some tracks and trails for mountain biking around here, they're almost all man-made. This is flat country with few hills. What I did need was a bike that wouldn't balk at dirt-roads and gravel/wash-out causeways through some of the swamp trails down here. The DS series fits that bill really well.

The mechanical disk breaks are awesome and the best part about the DS series is that as I get better, I don't need to buy a new bike; I just upgrade components until I get to the $1200 monster level.

I'm actually really excited about this. You guys may not know it, but Lord Doom got fat -- 470 lbs. type fat. We'll call that morbidly obese, even though I'm 6'4". Now I'm down to 210, and I need an aerobic activity that works with some of my less avoidable health-complications (namely my bionic right knee).

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Awesome! Trek makes a good steed and cycling is teh pwn.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Well, I need more aerobic fitness. I have good muscle strength and such; I have good muscle tone and density. What I lack is aerobic fitness right now, and cycling seems like a good thing for me all around. Plus, I have all this gorgeous rural swamp with paved and not-quite paved roads to cruise down and my choice of progressive fitness circuits convenient to the house that are cycling friendly.

For anyone else that's curious, the Shimano Altus series of 'commodity' derailleurs is fantastically reliable according to all the cycling pros around here. The locking fork was more important to me because of the dual use, but the 8.2 is the most popular bike in the series by a wide margin.

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I really wish my DBack had a locking front fork. I hate that its squishy.

I'm thinking I'm going to get a roadie here this year. Probably something Felt.

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Holy shitsnacks!