Yeah yeah! I know. I just bought a new bike a few months ago, but you just don’t seem to understand. That bike is a commuter bike, one on which I can tool around town day or night with the ability to carry bags and supplies without any need for special shoes or any upfront preparation. I can just get on and go. Oh, and it’s a Trek Allant+ 8S pedal-assist electric bike that can go 28 mph with relative ease, making my ride both functional and FUN!!!! I foresee myself using this bike on a daily basis getting to and from work as well as getting to social events in the evening this summer and beyond. Some of my friends joke that it’s my “Dorthy bike”.
I added the electric bike to my now 15-year-old Trek Pilot 5.9 Project One carbon fiber road bike that back in the day was the top of the line road bike made by Trek. That bike has served me well with tens of thousands of miles on the road without any need for repair and just the lightest of maintenance. I spent several hot summers biking across Iowa during the RAGBRAI rides of the past. I also used that bike as a “touring” bike of sorts and hooked up an Ibex bike trailer to haul gear on it for more extended rides. I even road it on the Elroy Sparta State Trail for which it clearly was not designed. That trail comprised of gravel was like riding through a field of landmines just waiting for a rock to puncture my high-pressure thin road tires.
After recently purchasing my Allant electric bike, I started thinking about regular bike maintenance of my old road bike in preparation for a goal of 2500 road miles this summer and decided to replace the chain and also considered upgrading the wheels to carbon fiber. While doing this I inadvertently discovered that the frame size on my current road bike was 54 cm and is undersized for me. After a lot of research, I realized that by all accounts, I should be riding a 56 cm frame, I honestly don’t know how that happened, but it did and for years I have been riding a bike that was definitely too small.
Over time, though, I am really no longer interested in a dedicated road bike that is configured for a more aerodynamic and fast ride. The current Trek Madone road bike is the ultimate superbike (I purchased one years ago and my daughter currently has it) —it’s fast, light, smooth, and designed to give you every advantage in speed and handling.
Of the world’s most sophisticated road bikes, only Madone delivers the triple threat of advanced aerodynamics, superior ride quality, and unprecedented integration. And now, thanks to the all-new 800 Series OCLV Carbon, Madone SLR is the lightest and fastest Madone Trek has ever made. As sexy as they are, that style of bike just isn’t for me anymore.
Introducing the 2021 Trek Checkpoint SL6 gravel bike. Gravel bikes can be ridden almost anywhere, on the road and off. Its adventure-ready features like disc brakes, additional clearance for wider tires, and comfortable geometry let these bikes adapt to everything from rugged terrain to winter exploration. These bikes are for the days when you’re not sure where the journey will take you, but need the bike you know will get you there.
Unfortunately, there continues to be a shortage of certain bikes right now and my bike wasn’t actually in stock at the local shop here in Sheboygan. I was able to test a model with the same frame geometry and size, but it had a different drive-train than what I wanted. It’s a commonplace scene at bike shops throughout the U.S. Early on in the COVID-19 crisis, bike sales were up more than 120 percent over the previous year and this year isn’t looking much better. People were—and still are—looking for alternate ways for transportation, as well as find new ways to get outside or get exercise with gyms opened at partial capacity across the country. And the interest has yet to abate. So it looks like I will be waiting a few months for my bike to arrive, but the projected arrival date is sometime in mid-May. It will be worth the wait.
In the meantime, I am planning on using my new Allant commuter bike around town and I will be taking my trusty old road bike with me when we go on our camping vacation to The Apostle Islands later this May. Until then, I plan to start working on getting myself better conditioned for the fun workout I have planned for myself as soon as the temperatures start to go up. I woke up this morning to a very frigid -11 degrees! No biking for me today!
