A sunny Sunday with my new Trek District Bike

Posted on February 13, 2011 by Moritz Bappert

A few months ago, a really nice bike caught my attention: The “vintage gray” Trek District.
I was browsing fastcodesign.com, reading some interesting articles when I stumbled upon “Belt Drives for Bikes take a Leap Forward“.
I found that technology I hadn’t heard of before very intriguing. It “replaces your standard oily, noisy bike chain with a totally silent, maintenance-free belt made of Kevlar, the same stuff used in bulletproof vests” – as they wrote at fastcodesign.com.

That way the Trek District really caught my attention, as they referred to it as an example bike. On trekdistrict.com – the “unofficial Trek Distrikt Blog” – I found lots of information and photos by owners, very helpful while considering this bike could be a good purchase.

Many other sources reinforced my really good impression. I just had to reassure myself that a fixed gear bike was a good choice. – I had thought of and planned buying a decent bike for quite a while already. After all it wasn’t a hard decision to make. Of course it cost quite an amount of money, but I found it worth to spend for something I really wanted to have fun with for a long time. In the end I got a good deal at 700 Euros for the bike after bargaining a bit plus 40 for shipping – about 1000$, which was way cheaper then the usual retail price in Europe.

Some facts (or “Key Selling Features”) about the Trek District:

Trek’s first-ever belt drive production bike
Carbon fiber composite belt is lighter than a chain, is reinforced to prevent stretching and requires no grease
Aggressive road bike inspired geometry
Belt drive produces a noticeably quiet ride
Niche appeal
Unique, nothing else on the market is quite like the District

I really love its design, kind of “urban”, I’d say. I was able to take a ride with it before I bought it and was also really impressed how lightweight it actually is.

Just one thing I regretted afterwards: Buying it in the worst season for bike-riding – that was in October, I think. I was just able to ride it once and then it got very cold and I had to resist the desire to use it as I just didn’t want to bear the coldness.

Anyhow: Last Sunday we had very sunny weather and spring time temperatures really! I rode for quite a while, had lots of fun enyoing not only the weather but also the nature and mostly the nice bike itself.

The first riding experiences:

I love riding the Trek District on flat surface. It runs very smooth and almost noiseless. The gear ratio seems perfectly chosen: Riding from very slow to quite fast is effortlessly possible. Passing by with this exceptional bike, you often find people turning their heads after you. The only downside becomes perceptible if it gets steeper: To a certain degree everything’s fine, but at some point it gets to straining for me. In my humble opininon, this bike was really made for plain area.

Of course I had my camera with me and took some nice shots! Enjoy.