Updated on September 12, 2011
Review: 2011 Trek 2.1
Even though this is my first year ever having a road bike, I feel qualified after 1500 miles in upstate New York (and 25 miles in Vegas) to write a review on the 2011 Trek 2.1.
So, what can I say about this ride? It’s awesome!!! First off, I must give props to my local bike shop, Full Moon Vista, for not only dealing with my over-researching of my purchase, but for helping me continually tweak my fit over the first few weeks I had this bike. From what I hear this is the standard with bike shops, but I was impressed either way.
So I bought this bike at the end of March, and by the middle of June had over 700 miles on it. Once the bike fit properly, I am hooked on this bike! Once I learned a few of the road biking basics, such as keep your tires inflated to 110, oil your chain all the time, and get some biking shorts, this ride has been nothing but pleasant. This is no $5K road bike, but I can’t tell the difference. If you are making the transition over to a road bike from a mountain bike, yes you will have an adjustment period, but this is the bike to do it on!
The Shimano 105 components are 1st class, I am now a better shifter, but as I was learning to shift appropriately, I definitely pushed these 105s. The wheels have been awesome through my early days of underinflated tires. The stock tires didn’t do it for me and I’m not sure if they just wore out or what, but I replaced them with some kevlar tires after about 600 miles. They had started to crack and show wire.
The brakes, once adjusted after cable stretch, have been top notch, even as I get freaked out still by speeds over 30, and ride them all the way down steep hills.
If you’ve been riding for awhile, I don’t have to tell you the importance of bike fit, the 2.1 H3 54″ was the right fit for me, and after a bunch of adjustments to the handle bars to get my perfect angle, I am comfortable with every handlebar position on this thing.
The ride: my first 800 miles or so, I was feeling wobbly going fast down hills. Guess what it was? The wheel reflectors! What a difference removing those was! I am now to the point where I am relaxed going down a hill at 30 miles an hour and what a relief! I was thinking all that work going up hills wasn’t going to be worth it! All in all at any speed, going up and down hills, and on the flat, this ride is just smooth smooth smooth! The gears (50/34 crank, 11-28 cassette) are perfect for me. The only thing is I find myself never leaving the 50 crank, and frequently going up to the 28 on the cassette. But even there this runs smooth (I have the compact crank, although there was a triple available) The carbon fork really does make a difference ( I test rode a road bike without one ) and even the seat, which isn’t always an easy fit, was perfect for me right out of the box.
The only thing I had to add on to the bike was a rear light, and I was good! I would have loved the red paint job, but only the silver version was available in the H3, but I’m growing to like it!
If you are looking for a first road bike, want to spend around $1300 (trek has a sale every spring) you should check out this bike! There are ton’s of bike shops everywhere that stock these, and for the money vs. performance price point – this is a GREAT first road bike! Just like Bruce’s Cannondale Synapse Carbon 3 Ultegra this bike makes you want to ride all the time! OK — off to find a radio so I can listen to the Bills game while I ride this afternoon!
Updated on September 10, 2011
Hack the Hat — The Day to Day Details
We have a little more than 2 weeks before we head out for our 2nd Cycle OverRide adventure through Ohio on our way to Derbycon. Welcome to HACK THE HAT!
Don’t forget — if you ride with us to Derbycon you get free admission! Email us if you have questions!
Here is all the info we have so far. This should clear up any questions that people are having if they are considering joining us.
Big picture is we plan on leaving Columbus Tuesday Sept 27th. Those of you planning to ride with us Tuesday morning should plan to meet us in Columbus Monday night for carb loading. We plan to get an early start on Tuesday. We will be providing the meeting point for Monday night soon.
Below is a day by day agenda including the hotel we will be staying at each night. (These routes are totally subject to change due to local input, group infighting or just plain old common sense!)
- Day 1 – 9/27 Columbus to Dayton (63.6 miles – route/hotel): We will start in Hillard, OH and end in Downtown Dayton at the Crown Plaza (33 EAST FIFTH STREET, DAYTON, OHIO 45402 )
- Day 2 – 9/28 Dayton to Cinci (69.3 miles – route/hotel): Day 2 leaves Dayton out the Great Miami River Scenic Trail. We plan to head into Cinci and and meet up with the Cinci 2600/Hive13 folks, and just chill out!
- Day 3 – 9/29 Cinci to Madison, IN (72.9 miles – route/hotel): Day 3 of our ride will be the grind. We will have extra caffeine gels and will want to get to Madison as fast as possible so we can enjoy reaching “NOWHERE”. Considering the short ride to Louisville from here, we should be able to eat up, sleep, and prepare for a really early ride to Louisville on Day 4.
- Day 4 – 9/30 Madison, IN to DERBYCON/Louisville, KY (~50 miles – route/hotel 1 sold out/hotel 2) – We have a short ride followed by a majestic crossing over the Ohio River into Louisville. There will be Cycle OverRide parisols distributed for the last mile! We will ending at the Derbycon hotel (soldout) but there is a Hampton Inn .4 miles east (hotel #2) for $118 per nite.
Posted on August 29, 2011
Hack the Hat – Training Info
Now that we are looking at a 180-240 mile, 3-4 day ride instead of the 380 originally planned for Hack the Heat.
Instead of designing a new wheel, I’m linking to a bicycling magazine’s training guide. We’ll have a post up on what to wear soon. But here is a link average temperatures in Cincy. Looks like we’ll have highs anywhere from mid 50’s to mid 60s
Updated on August 28, 2011
Hack the Hat – The Route
As we get closer to the Hack the Horn ride, it’s becoming pretty clear that a ride from Cleveland to Louisville isn’t feasible due to schedules and timing. We are going to ride from either Columbus or Dayton. I’m going to post the Route from Columbus to Louisville. It won’t be all here at first but as I tweak routes we will update it accordingly.
Here is the Columbus to Cincy Route, (about 120 miles) which we are planning as two days of cycling. We plan on catching up with the Cincy 2600 guys.
The final 120 miles will be Cincy to Louisville. I’ll update this post with the map soon.