badbishop

I’m considering riding Trek FX1 for a 2000 km trip with no or limited access to repair facilities. If it is broken beyond repair, there is still a possibility to hitchhike or to take a bus, so it is not a question of life and death.

The Plan

Buy a pair of new bicycles (for two riders), test them for a few hundred kilometers at home to discover possible defects. Do a bicycle field repair course at a local bike shop. Fly to Puerto Montt, and ride to Punta Arenas. Depending on bicycles’ condition, dispose, donate, or bring back.

Modifications

1. Replace standard handlebar with something in the vein of Surly Moloko
2. Replace the standard 48-38-28T crankset with 42-34-24T
3. Replace tires with something more suitable for gravel
4. Add a rear rack, possibly a front rack, etc.

My background

I have owned a Trek FX7300 since around 2002, and still ride it. I haven’t kept an exact count, but I rode thousands kilometers with it, with only maintenance involved (chain, tires, etc.). On this bike, my day trips are 100+ km on flat terrain, 70 km with ascent by 800m on weekends. During the week - about 60 km with 400m elevation. All of this is a mix of tarmac, gravel and badly broken tarmac (the worst). Of course, a loaded bike will reduce my capabilities, but I do not see anything critical here. I’ve never done bike touring per se, but hiked in the wilderness in the past, so I know how to pitch a tent and cook on a campfire.
I’d say, if the FX1 is essentially the same as my FX7300, I’d ride it.

Questions

1. What can go wrong and how to make it right? The only concrete criticism I’ve managed to google is screw-on freewheel failure beyond repair due to “cheap components”. Is that really so? No chance of remedy if I take spare parts and tools? Are there any other points of concern, as far as the bicycle operability is concerned?
2. Nowadays, it is not unusual for top brands to make an inferior product by cutting costs and then sell under a similar (or even same) name. Is Trek FX1 essentially “the same thing as FX7300 ''?

This is my first post here, so I cannot add links - sorry.

mstateglfr 

I have maintained a fleet of bikes for the last 7 years and the majority have been Trek FX1 models. So 15-30 of them each year. Ive seen the changes from year to year, and have worked on Giant's similar model(Escape).


The FX1 has a good frame and fork for what you want to do. There are plenty of mounts for water and racks. Now besides that...
- the tires are slow and cheap.
- the wheels are consistently awful quality. Spoke tension is inconsistent, rear wheel is a weak design freewheel instead of a freehub, and they are heavy. I cant hate on these enough- they are honestly 70% of my frustration when it comes to the bike. Kids that weigh less than 200# brake freewheel axles each year. Kids that weigh less than 150# break spokes almost weekly each year. Its shocking how terrible the wheels are year after year after year. I get that this is an entry level bike, but its almost like they actively try to not make the wheels reliable.
- the handlebar is steel and quickly corrodes from sweat.
- the stem is a 25.4 clamp. So when you change the bar, change the stem too.
- the brakes are very low end and come out of alignment easily, Also, the cable stop is weak and deforms easily.
- the 7 speed Tourney/Altus drivetrain is heavy and comes out of alignment easily.



Some suggestions.
- good that you are getting new handlebars. More hand positions is great. Note the stem will need to be replaced though since its made for a narrow diameter bar.
- good that you are getting different tires. Almost anything will be better.
- look into replacing the wheels. If you dont want to, cool I guess, but those freewheel rear axles are as solid as warm butter and break way too easily. A freehub design is inherently stronger than freewheel. Bring a freewheel removal tool for when a rear wheel spoke breaks.
- bring an extra derailleur hanger, or two. The stock ones seem to be made from aluminum foil and bend shockingly easily.
- have some small pliers in your tool kit. Then you can easily bend back the brake cable stop on those linear vbrakes.
- when you change your crankset, you will have a 42-14 ratio for your fastest/strongest gearing due to the freewheel setup. Just be aware since that ratio is relatively low. Thats only 20mph at 80rpm with 38mm tires. If you are good with that, cool.

veganbikes

It is a bottom end hybrid not something I would want to rely upon for touring especially in an area where bike shop access would be limited. Plus I wouldn't put much money towards one. It would really just be something to ride because I had too not because I wanted too. mstateglfr made some good points on it though I wouldn't ever call something like this entry level, I use entry level to define a good reliable bike that is lower in cost but not just the bottom of the line.

The Moloko bars are fantastic though my favorite ones right now are the Koga Denham but admittedly have not tried the new Velo Orange Crazy Bars V2 which might be better yet (and more importantly are available in the states easily)

I would not get hung up on Trek, they use that proprietary thru-skew B.S. that doesn't exist anywhere else. A standard QR skewer is fine or a thru-axle is fine but if something does happen that is a tough one to replace in the middle of nowhere but they are super common on mountain bikes these days and don't generally have a high rate of failure I think most of the issues stem from people losing them and that is hard to do if you always just put it back on no matter what. Whenever I am doing a flat fix or something on a bike with a thru-axle I always just reinstall it regardless of how long it will take.

Alee Denham (of the Denham bars fame) runs this little website and he has a lot of excellent info on touring bikes and would be a good resource: https://www.cyclingabout.com

djb

I'll be to the point here.

just a sec here. You are talking about Chile right? Flying all the heck there with all the expenses and whatnot, and riding over 2000 klicks down to the south of Chile?
Guess I'll await your response, but if this is the case, it doesnt seem to make sense to me to use a low end bike for such an adventurous journey, especially for someone with no touring experience.
I imagine your train of thought is to simplify your return, but as a long time bike traveler, and someone who has biked in Latin America, taking a low end bike doesnt seem to be the best idea.
Wheelset, hubs, bottom brackets, other components that are the cheap stuff just doesnt make sense to use, the risk and pain in the keester aspect is just going to be a lot higher with a low end bike.

We have similar bikes that we use for commuting etc, and dont get me wrong, they work fine, but I do all the maintenance on them etc, but as a choice for a long, tough trip in remote areas, not the best choice.

mdarnton

Boy, people sure like to hate on old tech! And the FX1 has a lot of Last Year on it. But that Last Year stuff was reliable for decades, and this bike works.

I bought an FX1-disc for Chicago commuting a couple of years ago. I've got 3500 pain-free Chicago-pothole miles on it. Not a thing has given me a bit of problem. My wheels came perfectly set up and haven't needed a bit of spoke adjustment (perhaps the shop did it on my first checkup, but nothing since). Freewheels served a couple of generations of tourers just fine before cassettes came along. That's an admitted weak spot in old bikes, but it's not something new or specific to Trek, and didn't keep several generations from touring. I've been riding freewheels for 65 years and never bent an axle. The skewers are an absolute non-issue. The only difference between the FX1 and a normal bike is that the bottom of the front dropout is closed. I immediately replaced their front skewer with a standard skewer because I didn't like the odd way Trek's worked and it was slow. You have to take it apart to get the wheel out. If you forget to put it back, you are too dumb to own a bike. The back skewer is totally normal.

Without racks my bike weighs about 28 pounds. This is pretty much a normal weight for a touring bike. It's not a racer and you wouldn't want one. Once you get it moving you won't notice the difference.

I bought the FX1 instead of the 2 especially for the steel fork. I immediately replaced the bars with (aluminum) butterfly bars for about $25--no big deal a lot more comfortable, and I would have done that with any bike, and I replaced the seat with what I normally ride on and would have done that with any bike. I got the disc brake version and love it. The mechanical disc brakes work great and I can do anything I need to do myself, easily and quickly. I've found the original tires to be fine and have only had two flats. They're still going strong, but I have better ones already in my closet for when they quit. The crank and drive are fine; again, not a single problem. The bike handles well with a load on the front or on the back. I have not toured with it, but it's set up for that and I intend to. I have total confidence in the bike for this. It does what it is supposed to. I bought it after doing a lot of research; it stood out as being one of the great bike deals, and I still feel that way. In 3500 miles I've replaced one brake cable/housing, two chains, and brake shoes a couple of times. Nothing else has needed to be replaced or greased, but when the time comes I am fine with loose wheel bearings, for instance.

I've got to assume that if you aren't a kid mistreating your bike or riding a fleet bike that isn't your own, so you treat it right, your experience will be similar to mine.

The one limitation based on your original post is that the tire width is limited to 37mm. I have sometimes wished I could have something wider with more tooth for the winter. The stock 35mm tires are smooth and not great on gravel, and that's the one situation I haven't been happy with.

djb

Old stuff is fine, low end stuff less so for the intended use.
If this trip involves the riding I think it would entail, wider tires and stronger wheelset would be wise. One would quite possibly be carrying more stuff than usual due to weather and remoteness, so an additional strain on things.

badbishop

Fellows, thank you very much for the sobering answers!


The statistical perspective provided by mstateglfr look sscary, so I have decided to abandon the idea. Pity, that things have deteriorated over time. I have broken the first spoke on my old FX7300 the last year after 20 years of riding. Other than that, just maintenance. If only I could clone it and reduce in size for my wife!


djb Yes, right, we are going to Chile. And we'll fly there from Germany.


I have decided to try Decathlon's Riverside 520 - at least, it's available around here (unlike Surly), and I can return it against full refund within 30 days, should I not like it. We do have suitable test terrain here in Black Forest, so in one month time I should get an idea. I'll share my impressions, probably in a different thread.

djb

badbishop, if you and your wife have not toured before, carrying a certain amount of weight on your bikes is a slow riding process, and you will want rather low gearing. The decathlon bike seems like a good sturdy bike, with 36 spoke wheels and the ability to put on a front rack, and you will want a front rack to have a more balanced load and more room for things and space to carry more water, food etc.

I would highly suggest that you look up as much bicycle touring reports on riding in South America as you can. I am sure you can find them in German also, but they will give you a much better idea of what equipment people use, tire widths, gearing, and what sort of riding experiences and everything that others have encountered.
This will prepare you much better for thinking of doing this trip, as proper preparation is so important.
Alles gute

djb

how low gearing that is ideal depends on numerous things, how heavy the bike and gear is, how you are as a rider--are you 30 years old and strong or 60 years old and not strong or whatever, how steep the hills are, how rough and steep the roads are, these sort of things.

what I can tell you is that from my experience riding in Latin America, you will never regret having very low gearing. My bike that I used on trips in Mexico and Central America have a low gear of 16.7 gear inches, and I was glad I had it for how heavy my bike was and the very steep hills that one can encounter sometimes.
The Decathlon 520 has a low gear of nearly 22 gear inches, I will attach charts showing this compared to my bike, but in other words, my bike can downshift two more gears lower than the Decathlon bike. I also have one gear higher top gear for when pedaling fast, but this does not happen often, so less of an issue.
You could change the chainring on the 520 from a 36 to a smaller one, but being a 1X system, you will have even a lower top gear....this is the downside to 1x systems, 2x and 3x systems offer a wider range of gearing with no downside to using them, despite what the bike industry says. Shifting to a different chainring up front is neither hard, complicated or problematic .

Again, read up on reliable trip reports of what you want to do, this will really help you get an idea of things.
If you have never bicycle toured before, this is a big trip to start off with, with lots of things to learn about.
Again, good luck. alles gute.

djb

my bikes gearing

badbishop

djb Worry not, I have already been doing my homework for a few weeks before posting here. Not sure if I can post a link here... There's for instance a Finnish guy, Taneli Roininen, who has produced a rather detailed account.

Decathlon says it has a crankset with lower teeth count, so yes, I realize the challenge. Fortunately, a suitable test ground is right next to home. As a matter of fact, I just came from a ride on gravel with elevation gain of 700 m and steepest gradient around 9%. I think we have enough time to train and test things on smaller, local tours. France is just a 30 km away!

mstateglfr 

Its great that the bike has worked well for you.
A few comments-

- Just because a single bike has worked for you doesnt mean that bike model is reliable, well made, or well spec'd for loaded touring.
- I have worked on well over 100 of these bikes at this point, and close to 200. It isnt like my comments are based on limited experience.
- Old tech is fine. I have bikes with old tech along with bikes with modern tech. My touring/commute bike is a 3x9 with a crank thats over 30 years old, shifter that are over 30 years old, etc. Old tech is different from cheap(price and/or quality) tech. The FX1 has cheap tech.
- Look across the internet- it is flooded with discussions on how poorly made much most of what is on an FX1 is. There is a flood of commentary on how fragile components are, how easily they go out of alignment, etc etc. Years and years of this.
- The wheel hub design alone should easily show you how your experience is limited and of little value when speaking to the general quality of things. A freewheel design is inherently weaker than a freehub. Its like a bridge thats longer than another bridge, but not reinforced any better.
- You saying the bike is great helps show the inconsistent quality of the bike and its parts. There definitely are some FX1 bikes that I have seen go for years(up to 5, but mostly 4) without anything more than a couple of washings each year and adding chain lube a few times a season. There are also a lot that break 2-3 axles in a season, or derailleurs basically explode, or handlebars come loose(this is an infamous problem with that small cheap steel bars and the 2 bolt stems), or seatposts come loose, or saddle clamps fail. Oh, and the spokes. My gosh the spokes. Its like they are uncooked spaghetti and just shatter on some of the bikes. This is because the spoke tension is set so inconsistently, for the record. A wheel can be true while spoke tension is atrociously inconsistent.

Calsun

Personnaly I do not want a gear that is so low I am spinning the pedals like crazy to move along at 2 mph. A 34t front crank and a 42t cog at that rear are more than low enough for any situation I have encountered. Long grinds up steep grades are more about mental toughness than physical prowess.

I would focus on the wheels as a bent rim or a broken spoke (which can result in the rim going out of true) is a big problem on the road. The strongest rims and going to 4-cross lacing makes for the most durable and troublefree wheels. There are spokes of varying strenth and worth the effort to find the best that are available and not rely on what your local bike shop has or what are used on pre-laced wheels. I would also want sealed wheel bearings in the hubs.

I would also take a spare chain and a spare cassett and spare spokes as part of your repair kit.

irc

Well it can be done. I met a couple of Europeans who flew to Vancouver, bought a couple of Giant Cypress hybrids and set off. I met them in Illinois.




But that said. Given the costs of flights and everything else on a long tour why cut costs on the most essential bit of kit?

Get better bikes or at the very least swap out the wheels for better quality wheels.

djb

[QUOTE=Calsun;22885051]Personnaly I do not want a gear that is so low I am spinning the pedals like crazy to move along at 2 mph. A 34t front crank and a 42t cog at that rear are more than low enough for any situation I have encountered. Long grinds up steep grades are more about mental toughness than physical prowess.

I would focus on the wheels as a bent rim or a broken spoke (which can result in the rim going out of true) is a big problem on the road. The strongest rims and going to 4-cross lacing makes for the most durable and troublefree wheels. There are spokes of varying strenth and worth the effort to find the best that are available and not rely on what your local bike shop has or what are used on pre-laced wheels. I would also want sealed wheel bearings in the hubs.

I would also take a spare chain and a spare cassette and spare spokes as part of your repair kit.[/QUOTE]

If a 22 gear inch low gear has been more than enough for your touring experiences, that's very reasonable, but I too had similar experiences until I toured in Latin America, carrying more weight than before due to the specific circumstances and experiencing road conditions and gradients that are sometimes steeper than what we usually encounter.
These people are planning to bike in South America.

For a two thousand kilometer trip, there is no need to carry these two lumps of weight. Again, I back up my opinion with direct experience touring reasonably loaded up, have never worn a chain out in 2k kms, let alone a cassette.

badbishop

This thread has come to a rather instructive conclusion: we bought two Surly Bridge Club bikes, ha-ha-ha.

djb

These are good, solid bikes. I forget all the specific details of the latest versions with a 1x gear system, but you'll be happy with your choice.
When are you planning to do this trip? As I'm sure you are aware, use other people's trips to this region as examples of when to go, for the weather, and ideas of what route to use. When we rode through central America, we used routes that other riders went through and this was a help. I also returned the following year and explored parts of Mexico, just going along a route of my own ideas, which worked out okay also.
if you have read trip reports like you mentioned, you will know about the strong winds down there, so just be prepared mentally for that, and the temperatures also.
Handlebars like the moloko or others do work really well for different hand positions, so have fun planning your trip and riding with all the stuff on the bike.

I would also highly recommend reading up on how to best pack your bike in a cardboard box for the plane trip. There are lots of little tricks to minimise the risk of damage.
Feel free to ask, many of us here have done it many times.

Fun adventure, you must be excited.
Tschus