OK, so after the not-so-fun ride on the not-so-plowed Dudley / Charles River path, I thought i would hang it up for the season. plus, the comfort bike i bought last summer to ride to the train station just isn’t the best for urban commuting. told my friends I’d see them in the spring.

then I bought a bike today. just can’t keep away I guess. ended up with the Trek Soho, which was $400 off at an LBS. hard to pass up!

it’s a good bike for my 13-15 mile commute from Westwood to East Cambridge. a lot lighter than the Giant Cypress I’ve been riding, with internal gearing and brakes and a carbon belt. this solves three of my biggest problems, in order of priority: 1) downshifting at frequent lights 2) hard to stop in the rain 3) no messy chains to maintain. I also love the reflective stripe on the tires for safety. not crazy about the puke-blue color but maybe that’ll make it less of a theft target…

I tried to do my homework before making the leap. the Giant Transend EX was in the same price range and had the newer Alfine hub + disc brakes and better grips, but frankly it’s an ugly bike and I wanted to try something else besides Giant (yes, I know most bikes including Trek are manufactured by Giant). I had been enchanted by the Giant Seek 0 but took and ride and didn’t think it worth $1100. in fact, I probably wouldn’t’ve gone for the Soho at that price.  I am a bit worried about the roller brakes given everything I’ve read online…we’ll see.

the other bike I was thinking about was the Xootr Swift folder, but to get it with internal gearing would’ve been $1200 and that would still have rim brakes. I would sure love the folding aspect, but I really want to ride before I buy and there’s no dealer in Boston (NYC is the closest). They have a money-back guarantee but not if you put an internal hub on it. I may think about it again in the future, lots of positives to a folder. I could always sell this if I end up getting one of those.

I plan to harvest my lights, rear rack / basket, and cyclocomputer from the old bike. I’m tempted to grab my old fenders too, even though the Soho comes with fenders (my planet bike fenders look cooloer).  Will check if I can use my old seaet or at least seat stem, which has a shock absorber. I hear the aluminum frame will be a roug(er) ride.

now that I know the Southwest Corridor path is plowed, I think I’ll have to give this a try on Monday!