Trek 4500

Problem is , is that I want a Mountain bike too, for commuting to and from work everyday. On the fence. Want a bright shiny thing now !! ...um what is LBS ?
Dan

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Yes I could indeed commute with a road bike ( thew roads are horrible in my province , but yes ). just I can afford the Mountain bike now. Just want my cake and to eat it too.Or Bike and ride it too. Want someone to tell me go buy the bike be happy riding it and it will be good for training too. ... LBS = Local Bike shop. Got it
Thanks
Dan

How much are you going to spend on a new 4500?

I have a 2yr old Trek 4500 that I use for everything. I just used it in the sprint tri Sunday and I was able to average 18.9mph over 15 miles. If you need a dual function bike a hardtail is not a bad way to go. I do about 80/20 road vs trail, but want a softtail now as when I do trails they have a tendency to be very root bound here in FL.

For the tri I had Geax Evolution tires that are great for the road and hard trails. Aerobars which were the best purchase for comfort and I changed the rear gear cassette from a 11-32 to a 12-23 to provide better gear selection which was another great move for maintaining speed.

If you can afford it buy as much bike as you can now! Ask about what the issues will be for future upgrades to components, such as front chain rings. The older 4500's require getting a whole new crankset to replace a chain ring. Also the older 4500's had a unique mounting bracket for the front derailer that caused offset issues when they tried to replace the crankset and now they need to due more of a search and try method to make sure the crankset offest matches up with the bracket/derailer.

My next bike will be in the $1500-2500 range, be lighter and have at least LX/XT componets. Go to the Shimano website and print the page that lists out the components product line listing so you have an idea of what level components you are getting with your bike. I'd recommend at least the LX family.

Don

Sweet , Now that was the reply that I was looking for. Thanks a whole lot for the info.
Dan

Still want a road bike too.....

I now have a road bike, but I've completed sprint tris on (1) my mother-in-law's 20-30 year old Schwinn with fenders and book rack and (2) a big heavy mountain bike I borrowed from a friend who is 8 inches taller. Now that I'm a little better squared away I find I do really well with a Trek hybrid and a road bike, although I'm starting to have a glint in my eye for a real tri bike. Some people are never satisfied, ya know?