fat2fit

A bit of background. I’m a new rider, I purchased an entry level mountain bike and hit the trails hard for the first month of riding and decided it’s not really my thing. As an ex-motocross racer, I love the dirt and the adrenaline, but I ride solo and it’s too dangerous out there and frankly, I hated how my mountain bike rode on the street. 95% of my riding is on the street/pavement. I ride my bike to the gym each day, around town to run errands when I don’t want to take my car and the weather is nice out, and just a casual rider who wants a bike to ride around town. I don’t really want to get super involved into a new hobby, so I decided against mountain biking. I traded my mountain bike in for a race bike. I got a good deal on it, it’s a 2014 Opus Allegro 3.0 (full carbon bike). It’s got some upgrades like Ultegra group set and aftermarket hubs. I love how fast the bike is but it’s too small for my frame. I need a large, this bike is a small. After riding my road bike for the last month I decided I definitely want something that can roll fast, but maybe something more practical and more durable than carbon. I don’t have smooth paved city streets, we have cracks in the road, cracks in the sidewalks, curbs I need to jump over, etc. The road bike was very limiting in this respect. I’m a heavy rider (250lbs), and the full carbon bike was super light but I felt like I had to baby it all the time, worrying one bad jump over a curb or hard hit pothole and my bike was finished.


I went to my LBS and they’re willing to trade me my bike straight up for a brand new 2019 Trek Dual Sport 2. The bike features wider tires that can go off road on some basic trails, but still rolls well. I really like the flat handlebars/upright riding position and the comfort the bike has. The bike does have disc brakes over my wheel brakes I currently have, and the bike has more gears. I understand the quality of some components is less than what my bike has, but for my purposes I feel like it could suit me more. One thing I’m on the fence about is the front fork. While I don’t plan to ride my bike on trails, ever – I do like that the bike does feature a fork with lockout, so I can ride it around town but still be able to clear potholes/curbs if I needed to (since I am a big guy, I feel like this is good for me). I’m not concerned about weight of the bike at all. Some people told me to go with a Trek FX3 over a Trek DS2, but the FS3 doesn’t have disc brakes (on the model I’m looking at), and while it does have a rigid fork, I’m not sure if that’s something I really want because I may put more wear on the bike given my weight.

Basically, I’m looking for a solid commuter bike to cruise around town, something that can take a dirt-path or shortcut if need be (which I can’t right now on my road bike). Is a DS2 a good choice?