Trek 1200C

Price Paid:  $600.00 at Ernies

Model Year:
2005

Favorite Ride:
Hilly: up, down--yahooo!

Bike Setup:
Stock.

Summary:
I bought this bike to ride with my kids and to work, as my road bike is not real comfortable doing these things. The bike is excellent for that. Overall this is a reasonable quality bike for the price I paid. I had to adjust the front deriauller (I know I spelled that wrong), both brakes and align one brake handle as soon as I got the bike home through. But this is the fault of the bike shop, not the bike. The front derailler (hmmm..still not spelled right), though, still doesn't shift as smooth as I think it should--not bad for the price I paid, but I would be mad if I had to pay the over $900 list price. The brakes are the absolute worst I have ever used. I believe it is because of the extraordinary hard brake pads. I will replace them and hope that solves the problem. The clipless pedals seem a bit odd on what is considered a "comfort" bike. I use them, but would most people looking for this type of bike? It isn't the best bike I have ever had, but it is the best bike I have ever had for what I use it for--rides when I don't care if I go fast, and in which I would rather have a more upright riding position. If I were rating this as a go-fast bike, the rating would be lower. It would be higher if the front deraulller (ha!...still spelled wrong) and the brakes were better. But all around, I am satisfied.

Strengths:
Good all around bike. It's not a racing bike. Comfortable for slow rides because of relaxed riding posture.

Weaknesses:
Brakes are terrible

Price Paid:  $750.00 at Ernie's Bike Shop

Favorite Ride:
Any ride is my favorite

Bike Setup:
Bike setup with the standard features. Removed the clip and strap pedals and replaced with clipless pedals.

Summary:
Don't let the C for comfort fool you. This bike will run and it will climb. I am coming from a Trek 4300 set up for the road and it like going from a 4wheel drive to a sports car for me. I wanted to be able to group ride and had to go to a faster bike but didn't like the racing geomerty set up and also wanted to watch the cost. The 1200c offers the geometry of mountain & comfort bikes but the mechanics of a race bike. It has a suspension seat post and carbon forks. These smooth the ride. For riding upright it has an extra set of brake levers mounted on the upper bar so you don't have to go the drops all the time to brake. The bar is set on an adjustable stem to set the bar height to your preferance if you want a more upright position or lower if you would like.
After I bought it I did a couple of rides by myself and was happy the speed and the time on each, but the 1st group ride the I went on really impressed me with what I bought. We did 30 miles with 5 climbs and 28 miles into the ride headed back, we were booking along at 27mph.
The only thing that I would have a complaint about would be the front derailleur. Still working on getting it to shift a little smoother. Rear shifting is smooth and no problem.
The only change that I made was to put clipless pedals on which has improve the preformance even more.
This bike would be good for a person who is looking for an entry level bike and wants the performance of a race bike but also wants comfort for long rides in the saddle.
I very happy with my investment and looking forward to my first century.

Strengths:
Comfort Geometry, Extra Brake Levers, Suspension seat post, Lite, Fast, Climbs

Weaknesses:
Front derailleur shifting

Similar Products Used:
Tested Specialized Sequoia at the same time. The bike were set up is almost the same for the same price but the Trek had better components then the Specialized. I also looked at the Trek 1000 & 1000c. But the price differnce for the upgraded components was worth the difference for the 1200c