Feels like an extension of my body
Written: Aug 13 '02 (Updated Aug 13 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Light, nimble, agile.
Cons: No stealth possible - this is the most recognizable high-end bike on the road.
The Bottom Line: A top end road bike for sport hill-climbers. Also consider the 5500 (same bike with Dura Ace).
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| nhunt's Full Review: Trek 5200 Triple |
I broke the bottom bracket on my 10-year-old old Trek 2300 two weeks before the 2002 Death Ride, and the parts weren't going to arrive in time. Fortunately, I had checked out the triple-crank possibilities earlier, and since I had an excellent excuse to buy a new bike, I jumped at it.
My first impression on getting on this bike was of agility and nimbleness. Since this was my first triple-crank, I wanted to find some good hills for my test ride. Those of you in the south Bay Area might know Redwood Gulch - a short steep climb, 600 feet in less than a mile, with a short 15% grade. On my way out, I got to check out the cruising gears, and then shift down to the middle ring for the approach up Steven's Canyon, then finally into the bottom ring for the grind up the hill. The bike is fast on the flats, nimble to avoid the stones and potholes in the backroads, and feather light up the steep bits. Redwood Gulch is narrow, winding, and full of potholes, patching, and bumps, and it practically turns to gravel for the last 100 feet -- The 5200 felt smooth and precise navigating the hazards and bumps. But then the road drops you off on CA Highway 9, which has a steady 8% grade, and is wide and smooth, with fast bends. I've sometimes passed slow cars down this road, and on my test ride, I got another opportunity. The 5200 steering is very sensitive, almost twitchy, at high speed - I wouldn't want to ride it hands-free - but even at 100rpm I felt very comfortable on the drops. (Now that I own the bike I have Scott AirStryke 2000 aerobars, and I've hit 52+mph coming down both sides of Monitor Pass on Highway 4 in the Sierra Nevada while down on the bars - very comfortable.)
The 30x25 low gear is enough to get the front wheel off the ground with a good push on the cranks, while the 52x12 gets to 36mph at 100rpm. I thought I'd miss the 53x11 on my 2300, but after about 500 miles I've found that I'm more comfortable in a higher cadence on all terrain, and I miss it less than I thought. I put my Speedplay pedals on the bike; I find my shoes occasionally touch the crank-arm on the right side - I suspect the triple puts the crank-arm closer to the pedals than my old double crank. If you ride with pedals like the speedplays with lots of float, you might notice this.
I'm tall - 6 foot 3.5 inches - so I had to swap out the seat tube and the handlebar stem for longer ones (I have the longer Bontrager seat tube, and the 140mm 60degree Bontrager stem. I like a forward riding position, so I have the saddle all the way forward, but then the bike fits wonderfully. Chain Reaction bike store swapped out the components at no cost - as I imagine all good stores will do.
I found the Ultegra shifters a little stiff at first, when shifting to smaller chainwheels or sprockets, but over a few days of riding the stiffness seems to have gone, and I'm left with a feeling of precision, and shifting is always flawless and smooth.
Some notes on the OCLV frame. (At the time of writing, Lance had just won his 4th TdF with essentially this same frame.) Like all composite frames, it needs some special care. The most important is to avoid chain injury to the frame by making sure the chain guard stickers are in place, so that in case of shifting the chain off the small chainwheel you won't grind a groove in the frame. Similarly you want to avoid carrying the bike in a way that might carve grooves in the frame. Then you are supposed to keep it out of extreme temperatures (180 degrees F). Personally I melt at those temperatures, but I could imagine a problem if you store the bike in front of a sunny window indoors. And finally, of course, the frame-clamp bike carries are deprecated. The recommendation is to use a front-fork skewer rack, or I prefer the Yakima Ankle Biter which leaves the front wheel attached and clamps the crank arm against a support tube. (It looks wobbly, but I've traveled thousands of miles with bikes of all shapes and sizes on my rack without any problem.) The OCLV frame is credited with being very stiff to torquing forces, so putting all of your pedaling power into the wheels, but at the same time being forgiving of road bumps. It sounds like marketing bull to me, but I have to say that its the smoothest ride I've had, especially on those choppy California roads where proper resurfacing has been postponed for years in favor of patch after patch after pothole. At the same time, even when standing on the pedals and cranking as hard as possible, there's almost no perceptible frame flex -- I don't get any of the rattle of chain against front derailleur as the right pedal starts at full pressure, as I have had on previous bikes.
The Racelite wheels seem solid - and they provide a smooth surface for sharp braking with minimal brake lever pull. The front wheel has 10 pairs of aero spokes, and the back wheel has 12 pairs with crossover for transmitting power from the sprocket to the rim.
The Shimano Ultegra shifters are set up to take the Shimano Flightdeck computer, and it would be stupid not to get it, since it does a nice job of showing which gear you are in. For the uninitiated, the flightdeck has sensors in each brake hood / shifter to detect the gear setting. With a single front-wheel sensor, it then back calculates your cadence from the gear ratio and road speed. Not only do you get a cadence display without having all the hassle of cadence sensor wiring, but a bigger benefit is that you get virtual cadence display when freewheeling, so you'll know whether you have the right gear to start pedaling (what, you've never done that spinning-with-no-resistance thing that feels so silly when starting to pedal at the bottom of a hill when you forgot to shift all the way up?).
You'll want to swap the saddle, of course. I suppose everyone has a different shape, so there wouldn't be a lot of point trying to put the right saddle on. At least I got a $20 credit for the stock saddle against a real one.
The bike comes in charcoal grey or USPS team colors. I chose the understated charcoal grey, because I just love whizzing past the next guy in a total surprise. But actually the thick tubes and rounded junctions of the OCLV frame look so distinctively "Trek" that there's really no stealth possible. Anyone who doesn't recognize this bike isn't worth dusting anyway! (Out warming up for the Death Ride a few days in advance, I counted a dozen Trek 5200 and 5500s of various vintages out of the 20 bikes I encountered! Talk about a popular choice!)
And yes, I finished all five passes of the Death Ride - 129 miles, 16,000 vertical feet - in 9 hours 37 minutes riding, 12 hours elapsed! I'm sure I wouldn't have had the oomph to make the fifth climb up Carson Pass in the late afternoon with my double crank 2300.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
nhunt
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Member: Neil Hunt
Location: Bay Area, California
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 3 members
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