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Trek District review
May 31, 2009 |
| 05/11/2009. Only took about seven months to arrive (ordered it at the end of Oct., '08). Photo taken when everything's still stock. |
If you're here, you're probably aware of the uniqueness of the new 2009 Trek District. It was announced back in Oct. of 2008. While it's not the first belt-driven bicycle, it is the first production bicycle made with the Gates Carbon Drive System. Instead of a chain, it is driven by a carbon fiber polyurethane belt. There are several advantages, but the main one for me is its low maintenance (more about that later).
Let me just start by saying that I love riding this bike. It's simple, solid, and fun to ride.
I've read a number of reviews that have mentioned how the the belt drive is "amazingly quiet." While I do agree that the drive is quiet, I'm not sure that it's much discernible from a bike without a derailer and a clean chain. I'll spare you from my rant about derailers, but lets just say that I don't care for them. Their main advantage is that a well set up and maintained derailer system can be more efficient than any of the alternative internal gearing systems (Nuvinci CVP, Shimano Nexus/Alfine, the insanely priced Rohloff Speedhub, etc.).
While we're on the subject of belt noise, I had an issue with the belt squeaking or chirping. Under easy cruising, the belt would basically be silent. After a bit of hard riding though, the squeaking would reliably manifest. Googling a bit and checking the Gates Carbon Drive website, it seemed like it was probably an alignment or tension issue (apparently common). Since I had never worked on a belt system before, I removed the rear wheel and inspected the belt (for no good reason). After putting the wheel back on, re-tensioning and re-aligning the belt according to belt servicing booklet that came along with the bike, it hasn't squeaked since.
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| I've had the bike for a few weeks now and have changed out the saddle, skewers, and pedals. Added a bottle cage and replaced the plastic reflectors with 3M retroreflective tape (shown with flash below). |
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The stock tires are Bontrager Race Lite 25C's. In a city like L.A. with all of its potholes, cracks and various debris, it can definitely be a harsh ride. And you'll definitely have to be carefully scanning the road so that you don't catch the tires in a grate, crack or a seam. All that is to say that this isn't a casual cruiser. I've never really ridden a bike with skinny tires before. Going over a rock or pebble will shoot it out of the tires pretty hard (definitely caught me by surprise as it pinged a parked car).
The biggest advantage of the District for me is its lack of a chain (and its associated maintenance). It's not just that I hate cleaning a chain (which I do). It's that I also live by the beach and tend to get a lot of sand in my chain. While chain cases lessens the situation somewhat, it doesn't eliminate it. The problem with sand in your chain is that you can't simply lube it. In addition to oil attracting more sand and grit, applying lubrication to a sandy chain that hasn't been cleaned will turn the sand and grit into a grinding paste. While it's possible to clean the chain on the bike without removal with scrubbing gadgets, it still won't get a lot of the grit and sand.
Having said that, the biggest disadvantage of the District is also due to its lack of a chain. Bicycle chains are ubiquitous. Should anything unforeseen happen, the chain and various associated parts are easy to come by. Should anything happen to the belt (supposedly 2-3x more durable than a traditional chain), you're probably out of luck. BTW, It's the Gates 118T belt (no idea what a replacement belt costs).
The District also originally came with a brown Bontrager inForm R saddle, and MKS Sylvan track pedals. While saddles and pedals are always quite a personal choice, I'm not sure why Trek went with a track pedal (without including the toe-clips) for what they're calling a "urban commuter."
If you compare the stock District with the photo on their website, you'll notice a few differences on the production bike.
- silver brakes
- silver alloy seatpost (instead of carbon fiber shaft)
- black painted spokes (would have preferred polished stainless)
- various accents (i.e. Bolts for the chainring and cage mounts are silver instead of orange. The bolts on the stem are orange instead of silver. The cutout in the seatpost is missing the orange accent. Bolts anchoring the sliding dropouts are silver instead of gray.)
