Last month I decided to upgrade from my mountain bike of 12+ years. With the mountain bike, I could never get the speed going that I used to enjoy with the Motobecane 10-speed I bought in the mid 1970s. I’m getting a bit old for the drop-down handlebars, so I decided to go with the cross-over style: basically a road bike with its thin tires, but with a mountain bike’s flat handlebars.

I chose the Trek brand for its reputation, and since this may be one of the last bikes I buy, I thought I’d step up a bit and get a mostly carbon-framed bike. That pretty much left the 7.9 FX (the U.S. site) (in Japan). We’ve had really cold weather recently, so I haven’t ridden it so much. Having written that, though, I have to say it’s the most comfortable bike I’ve ridden, and it is a shear pleasure to navigate. One review I read complained of the thumb shifters, but I haven’t been bothered at all. I’ll post more as I ride more.