I've been riding my new Pilot 5.2 for about three months. I love the bike! That being said, I've had some growing pains. The bike is set up with and ultegra triple crank and a 12-25 cassette. It seems to be really sensative to cable stretch/adjustments. Has anyone had a similar problem? Any advice to help keep the shifting smooth would be appreciated.

The not so good: My rear hub failed almost immediately. Trek was very good about the warrantee. I was told that there were a batch of wheels from Bontrager that were bad... The replacement is not suppossed to have the same trouble. I'll let you know. I've switched to a set of more durable Mavic wheels, that are great.

Any other long term observations about maintenance would be welcome as well.

I've been riding my new Pilot 5.2 for about three months. I love the bike! That being said, I've had some growing pains. The bike is set up with and ultegra triple crank and a 12-25 cassette. It seems to be really sensative to cable stretch/adjustments. Has anyone had a similar problem? Any advice to help keep the shifting smooth would be appreciated.

The not so good: My rear hub failed almost immediately. Trek was very good about the warrantee. I was told that there were a batch of wheels from Bontrager that were bad... The replacement is not suppossed to have the same trouble. I'll let you know. I've switched to a set of more durable Mavic wheels, that are great.

Any other long term observations about maintenance would be welcome as well.

The Shimano 10 speed triples are a ***** to set up properly and keep adjusted. In the "old days", one tended to see triples only on touring, sport touring, and mountain bikes, all with relatively long chainstays. The short chainstays on the Pilot, the narrow cage on the front derailleur to work with the narrow 10s chain, the spread of the cassette, and Shimano's idiotic attempt to "index" front shifting all conspire to make the system very adjustment sensitive (one of the reasons I prefer Campy).

Rear shifting, however, hasn't been a problem, although all 10 speed systems are more finicky than 8 or 9. If your having problems there, it could be other issues (hanger alignment, bad cable housing, etc.). Something for your LBS to look into.

And yes, our shop has seen one of the bad Bontrager Race Lite hubs. The internals basically disintegrated. Trek shipped us a new wheel in two days.

On the other hand, I've got several thousand miles on a set of '06 Race Lites with nary a problem

Thanks for the input!

I called Trek directly about the hub failure. They were very honest about the problem and replaced my wheel quickly (after my bike shop finally got around to processing the warrantee claim). I had the problem you identified (the internals just came apart). No complaints with Trek.

My shift problem has been as follows (maybe I'm too picky...): The rear is working pretty well. Sometimes the chain drop is not as crisp as I would like (I've made barrel adjustments and fixed the issue). As the bike is pretty new, the cables are still stretching. It just seems REALLY sensitive. One or two clicks on the barrel can make all the difference.

I've had some chain rub issues on the front derailure. Once again, just a slight touch and a bit of noise. It is irritating but not really a huge deal. I guess I just like things to work well.

It sounds like I'll just need to live with it as the "nature of the beast".

I suppose I could swith to a double, but I've grow to like the triple... besides I don't want to spend the $$ necessary to make the change.

Thanks for the help!