The Trek Dual Sport 2 is a hybrid bike / commuter bike in the Trek lineup. I decided to take it out and do a full review to see how it stood up as a neighborhood bike, road bike and moutain bike.
I own a Trek DS 8.4 which I purchased in 2016 in the matt black colour. In the last 2 years I have used this bike extensively, most of the riding is for fitness but do mix up on trails. Its a great all-round bike with some limitations. Having watched this video, I would say its a fair and honest review. Great job on the editing and putting this clip together. I purchased a Brooks leather seat, MTB short mud guard, Restrap bikepacking soft packs and frame bags. Did have some issues with spokes breaking on the wheel but my local Trek dealer was fantastic with product support and customer service, they really stand behind their brand.
RISKU Thanks for the view, I agree with everything you said. This is my first “real” bike and I didn’t know what to expect or what I was looking for. Since having this bike for about 7 months now, I couldn’t be happier with it.
I have the women's DS2 and I can say it's a great all-around bike. Not built sturdy enough or with fat enough tires to give a lot of confidence on rougher trails, but does great on light trails and it's very zippy on the road. It's a fun bike to ride and I love the handlebar width. I changed out the saddle immediately to something wider; the stock seat is a joke. For more durability on trails, I picked up a 2019 Trek Marlin 6 and I love it. Not as fun to ride on the road as the DS2, but gave me lots more confidence on trails as I learn to mountain bike.
I am considering women's form factor for the funnier shape and zippiness. It's only available in this form here at the moment anyway. Guess that even stock seat will satisfy this guy of me.
can not make up my mind so good to hear what you thought about this bike. i am a mountain bike guy but after 25 years of doing that i am now looking for a bike that is a bit more chilled but i really do not want to change as i love mtb. this could be the way though. thanks.
Thanks for a great review. I got a solid understanding of what this bike is capable of. I'm waiting on the 2022 DS 4.I hope it does not end up being discontinued. Also enjoyed all the comments. Those added a lot.
It looks like you were really putting that bike through its paces. Which works out well for me because I’m not going to be asking it to do as much as that. I plan on picking mine up in a week or two. I will be using it for around town and gravel trails. I’m in Central Florida which is mostly flat. I am however in the Claremont area which does have some modest hills.
3:47 I still have a 2016 Trek 7.2 FX. I love the blue color, it matches my blue wheel LED's perfectly. Over the years I bought the following (I mostly commute at night, 6 days/wk): Topeak rear rack and Topeak panniers. IKEA FÖRENKLA backpack (cheap, lots of room, very durable, quick and easy to open and close). Schwalbe Marathon tires, excellent puncture protection. I use Schwalbe Winter Marathon tires for snow (
I'm getting a Trek Dual Sport 3 next week and I'm so excited to ride! This is my first actual bike bike and from your video I think it will handle what I need it for
I own the FX3 and it rides like a dump truck. I feel every pebble and bump in the road. Not a big deal on a short ride but I usually ride.12-18 miles and the last 4 miles are always brutal.
I agree totally with one exception this bike is the evolution of the trek 7000 series like the trek 7100 this would be the incarnation of the trek 7200 this particular line of bikes is great with regards to the speed in order to increase your speed on that bike I would suggest going down to a 700 by 32 mm tire that will increase your speed significantly
Nice review. I mostly like my DS2, but it has a couple of issues that I'm not sure if it's just that I got a bad one or if it's the way they are. Firstly I think the rear gears have too many of them and because the travel from 1-8 is so far I can't get them to align perfectly across all 8 and I get some "grinding" noises on the extremes and can see the chain catching and jumping at times, but I've adjusted the selector to suit the gears i use most of the time, so although annyong it's not a deal breaker. The second issue I have is with the front crank/gears alignment, where the crank seems misaligned and if I hold a ruler against the large gear I can see about a 1/4" difference in and out during a full rotation of the crank. What that causes is the chain to grind on the gear changer mechanism guide when i'm at extreme ends of the gears and it gets to the extreme part of the misalignment, I.e 8th rear and 3rd front once for every pedal rotation. I took it back to shop when it was only a week old to ask about this and they replaced the crank under warranty, but the new one is just as bad! They told me it was "entry level" components and I need to wear these out and upgrade them. The police here use the same bike and I can here them coming with all the grinding noises they make, so maybe its just a bad design? Apart from these two issues I can go 20-30 miles on the hard packed forest roads and it picks its way through the rocks and stones fine. Now I'm more used to the narrow tires I can actually fly up and down gravel parts with confidence. I've get it loaded with a rack and fenders for practical reasons and carry my food water and extra gear, so the bike is quite heavy now, BUT for me it goes everywhere I need it to. The range of gears from low to high is great for climbing gravel roads miles from anywhere to cycling reasonable distances on the road. I have one bike that covers all my needs, but with some compromises as you would have to expect! I wonder if anyone else has my gear issues?
There should be no grinding on the front derailleur unless you're at opposite ends of the gears, like on the large front chainring and small rear cog. You need to avoid doing this as it places too much stress on the chain and wears the components faster. Try to avoid extreme angles on the chain.
And all bikes with these gears like this is as follows. Front gear 1 should only be used 1-5 Front gear 2 you can use all 1-8 Front gear 3 you can use 5-8. You do this to prevent chain from being all the way on one side compared to the other or vice versa.
camelinckx thanks for the kind words, I have a small bag from amazon just before the handlebars where I keep my phone, spare tube, tire change levers and an Allen key to adjust the seat. Other than that I have the topeak rear rack that I strap my lunch box to with bungee cords. I also have a mini air pump attached to one of the water bottle rack mounts and also a water bottle rack.
camelinckx updates yet? I don’t know if I should get it but I would love some feedback, if it’s still in good use and if there is any problems like the noises it makes?
Hi, Nice review. How many speeds is this model? On the part of the review you mention you didn’t make it up the hill and ended up walking the bike up. Was this due to the tires not having enough grip or width? Or The DS not having enough low gearing? Or were you just out of steam! lol 😂
How useful is the suspension on these? many people on reddit are saying it's redundant and you should just get the fx and have the same feel because of the carbon and they are lighter what do you think?
Beautiful area. What state are you in? BTW just purchased a DS3. You're review helped with my decision in purchasing a Trek.I Live in NJ and have to wait for spring.
Thanks for the view, I'm originally from Ohio however, I am in the military and stationed out in the deserts of California which is where this is filmed.
@@robsadv8378 : I'm surprised it handles well in the desert with the standard tires. Deep pockets of loose sand are problematic for my 2015 DS 8.4. As a kid, I lived at Edwards AFB, Doolittle Drive, long before those hoses were demolished.
@@ericgerda210 Lambertville, NJ is a great place to start on the D&R Canal trail which goes all the way north to Frenchtown, as well as south to Trenton and then north to New Brunswick.
I'm considering this as a commuter bike, or the FX series. Thanks for the video. The scenery looks a lot like the area where I currently live. El Paso, TX. But, we're about to move to the DC area, so I'm still not sure which bike to go with.
How much do you weigh that you find the shock bottoming out on that mild trail? I’m 205, so that could be an issue for me. Have you thought about getting lighter tires and wheels for it, and just swap them out so you can have more of s road setup with one set and more of a trail with the other set? Very helpful video, by the way!
You can add another set of wheels to do as you suggest but the DS line is limited to a fairly narrow rear tire which constrains its trail performance. A wider front tire can help in mud, loose sand, and rut conditions. The wheels that come with the bike are fine for the road. In my opinion, the bike is better suited for road and hardpack. It should not be used in an aggressive MTB role, but just road, and light trail roles.
Go the Dual Sports. I went for a 40km ride 2 days ago, was riding fast on sealed road (some in poor condition), turned off on hard packed dirt, pot holes and loose gravel (not too much), then ended up a dirt forest track (hard dirt trail with climbs and drops before finally going back onto sealed road again. I find the Dual Sports fast, my previous bicycle was a Giant Defy roadbike. FX3 is a good bike, but feel you can still get great speed with more versatility going the Dual Sports.
yousef saadeh Thanks for the view, both bikes are extremely good, since the FX has 32c tires compared to the 38c of the DS, on the road it will be a quicker bike. However, with old roads, cobblestone and trails the 38c tire of the DS will do a much better job. The components are slightly better on the FX as well. Assuming you are talking about the FX 3 disc model. Off road the DS will outshine the FX. The margin of how much better the DS is off road is more than how much better the FX is than the DS on road, I hope that makes sense. If long rides and optimum speed are not a huge factor, I would personally go with the DS.
yousef Saadeh, I have had both bikes. They overlap but are very different bikes. In my opinion you buy the one that most often best fits the type of riding you are doing.I found that I rode my FX3 much more often than my DS4. I bought the DS4 thinking it would be my do everything bike. It fits that role pretty well, but I didn't ride it that often, as the FX3 was much more quick and nimble and, well, more fun to ride. I live in Seattle, and we have our share of potholes, but I find that I avoid those areas.I think it's hard to find one bike that does everything. I sold my FX3 and DS4 and I tried to do the one bike quiver thing with a Cannondale Bad Boy - it has a 70mm travel front shock, hyrdraulic disc brakes, I can used 26" wheels on it for twisty trails and 700c wheels on it for gravel paths and paved roads, and the bike stock weighs about 26 pounds - that's without any weight reducing efforts. My DS4 weighed almost 31 pounds, but it dead have 29” wheels. For 90-95% of my riding, this combo works great.I do need to admit I bought a "hard core" mountain bike for those settings that require a sturdy, big mountain bike. For someone who likes to ride paved roads and trails and who also likes to ride trails and occasionally downhill, having one bike to do it all doesn't really work (in my opinion); two bikes at a minimum are needed.
@@robsadv8378 Hello guys, Iam 6'3" and i just picked up a SD3 in a XL size and this bike does sit's taller then what i expected, also i find myself over extending just a little reaching the handle bars. Its probably because i am used to riding smaller frame bikes and having shorter arm reach for my height. Iam considering exchanging to a size Large which i hope fits better
Hi bro. I watch your excelent review and i more than convinced thay I make a good decision buying this bike. I really hope you could help me with the model of baby chair you buy for this bike, because the model I bought doesn't give me the confidence to move around with my 4 years old daugther. I will be in eternal debt if you could answer this message so I can order one online. Sorry for the bad english, Im from Puebla Mexico by the way.
Creo que primer comentario en español LOL. Mi experiencia sobre la dual sport 2 en trail no fue muy buena la verdad las llantas no tienen suficiente agarre y es fácil resbalar además creo terminas esforzarndote más, en conclusión terminas más cansado y con un desempeño pobre , pero en pavimento o en banquetas es una chulada de bici
Creo que para eso es mejor la Marlin, al menos eso dicen, estás DS son más carretera que otra cosa con comodidad, pero otros dicen que son muy buenas en pequeños senderos ligeros, entonces al final ni yo sé a quién creerle. Supongo que cada persona le da un uso particular y tienen espectativas diferentes, de ahí que tengan diferentes opiniones. Al final creo lo mejor es sacar el promedio de opiniones y de ahí guiarse por una u otra bicicleta.
Aunque ahora que lo pienso, mi bici es una de apenas 225 dólares uwu (gracias a dios tengo bici, jeje), pero le cambié las llantas a unas de Specialized, no recuerdo el modelo y para ser tan sólo 35mm tienen un agarre asombroso, ¿Podría ser la llanta de la DS?.
@@undibujomasyya después cambie por una marlin 5 y si sentí la diferencia en los senderos pero terminé cambiándola por una trek roscoe 8 y la verdad me encanta
