At a glance A super comfy, easy commuting, leisure and general fitness bike with a more upright position that glides over cracked, rough roads
Tested by
Claire Maxted, tester for The Bike List
Performance
Your bum will thank you for a long commute on this 27-gear hybrid/town bike. The UK road surfaces are far from perfect after this winter's epic freeze-thaw action, but the first thing you notice is the comfiness of the 7.6 FX's ride. Riding this bike is almost as comfy as sitting on your sofa watching the Tour de France. Almost...
Used to commuting on a road racing bike, suddenly here I was gliding over sun-cracked, tree root-lifted tarmac and bumping up dropped kerbs on my 12 mile round trip to work. Gone was the teeth rattling, elbow shattering and bum battering of all those rough sections that I had previously had to swerve around on my very speedy, but very unforgiving road bike.
This is all down to Trek's Ride Longer features. The most noticeable of these is the IsoZone dampening system, which took their engineers a year to perfect for their FX series. They claim this "isolates the most pivotal point on the FX frame with a revolutionary damping system that kills vibration in the range a rider feels most (between 40-50 Hz)."
I'm not sure what size of pothole a 40-50 Hz vibration represents, but this hardly noticeable rubber block in the rear monostay explained why I was now able to fly over root-corrupted roads on the 7.6 FX's Bontrager wheels and tyres without emmiting my usual, "Ughhh!" You can't feel any sag or wobbling on smooth surfaces, but its action on uneven road and tamer park tracks makes for a noticeably more comfortable ride.
Helping this mini-suspension effect and adding to my riding comfort was last year's Flex Form in the Bontrager Nebula saddle (only available on the 7.5-7.9 FX bikes). Suspended on a rubber elastomer, the saddle pivots back and forth subtly with the motion of the pelvis as you pedal.
The wider, padded Nebula saddle itself provides an upright riding position that places more weight on your sit bones and allows your weight to disperse across a larger area for even more comfort. For me, the saddle felt less rigid and complemented my natural pedalling movement which added to the overall comfort and smoothness of the ride.
The last item of comfiness is on the handlebars. Now, I'm used to my elbow and wrist joints rattling like the last biscuit in the tin as I dodge the potholes to work, so the rubbery Bontrager Ergo Grips were a revelation. They absorb a significant amount of shock to preserve your joints, and your sanity, especially if you ride a particularly long commute on broken roads. There is also plenty of room on the aluminium frame for mud guards and a rack to preserve your clothes and carry your work documents.
These three features do make for an extremely comfy ride and its more upright geometry puts this bike firmly in the easy commuting category. Safely within the sub-£1000 urban commuting bike price limit, the Trek 7.6 FX is comparable in geometry and style to the aluminium framed, 8-gear Scott Sub 10 Solution £900. It is even more like the 27-gear Specialized Vita Comp £900 which has shock absorbing carbon rear seatstays with rubber Zertz inserts (Men's version Sirrus Comp).
Although a great bike for fitness and versatile enough to whiz along with your kids to the park, the F.6FX is not aimed at speed demons or more dedicated cycling fitness enthusiasts who want to race the rush hour traffic. The gear ratio has a big enough range to cope with moderately hilly commutes and the Tektro RX 1.0 V-brakes are more than sufficient to stop you on the way down again.
There's also one other great feature on this bike. The Clix front wheel release system is a quick release that's even quicker than before. Simply unlock the quick release lever, pull the Clix sleeve towards it and slide the bike up out of the axel. Slide it back in to clip it back in. It's hard to explain in words, so take a look at their video here. Once you get the hang of it, its super quick to get your wheel off and your bike in the car.
The styling of the 7.6 FX isn't as city cool as it could be, but the high quality components add up to a really comfy bike. It is perfect for commuters wanting to ease the bone-shaking on rough roads and enjoy keeping fit but don't aim to be super quick racing snakes competing with the traffic.
