Anyone know about bikes?

[Aquattro]

Hmm, now I can see the pic. Weird. anyway, pretty much what I suggested for style in Trek. RM is also a decent bike.

[VFX]

Thanks for the info...

I like the look of the Trek's. Soho & Police look like good possibilities.

I've not seen many Trek commuters on the stores I've been to so far.

Sounds like they may be more urban/light trail biased than road biased.

I will probably work up to longer & longer road rides, ultimately in the 100-150 km range.

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[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by VFX

I will probably work up to longer & longer road rides, ultimately in the 100-150 km range.

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you'd then want a real road bike, with as much carbon on it as you can afford. The difference in ride and comfort between aluminum and carbon when riding that far is pretty big.

[VFX]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

you'd then want a real road bike, with as much carbon on it as you can afford. The difference in ride and comfort between aluminum and carbon when riding that far is pretty big.

I find dedicated road bikes to be a bit too twitchy when riding anything other than open roads or tracks. Kinda overly responsive.

Carbon would be nice but I don't want to drop $2+k

A Cyclocross bike would probably be best but again, don't want to drop so much money on it.

It's difficult, I want to do long road work but there's lots of nice light trails near me that I don't want to miss out on.

What's the bike on your avatar?

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[Aquattro]

Ya, but its tough to find something that will do it all. The cyclocross' are nice as a compromise, but in the end, not a perfect solution. For me, I have a mtn bike, a commuter and a road bike. My avatar is my road, a Trek Madone. I found the road bikes "twitchy" for only the first 50k, now it's the bike I feel most stable on. I'd rather go through traffic at 40k on this over either of my two other bikes!

[VFX]

Just looked at the Trek site again...

That bike on your avatar is dreamy!

How is the stance on a longish (3-4hr) ride?

I'm used to something more upright but I guess I need to adjust if I'm changing over to roads.

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[Aquattro]

The first time I went for a long road ride, my back felt like I'd been hit with a board! lol
but now, I can ride 4 hours in total comfort. It's different than a mountain bike for sure, but much more comfortable on a long ride. And a 15 pound bike is nicer to ride all day than a 25 pound bike! The big thing with carbon, other than weight, is it really absorbs the road shock. my first road bike had carbon forks and rear triangle, but still not as nice as full carbon.
Once in a while I'll take the long way home on my commuter, and an hour on that, and I'm not happy. It does all come down to how much you're going to ride, but if you think you're serious about road, I'd go best I could up front. Most shops will let you go out for a serious test ride, so go try them out. After an hour, you get a pretty good idea of the differences.