When it comes to number of gears, I believe more is not always better. But I was glad to have them when I was starting out because I didn’t have to walk my bike or exhaust myself going up hills. I don’t use the low gears as often as I build up my leg strength over time. Note that the number denotes the number of tooth on the gear which are all the same size regardless of front or back gears. 26/32 = 81%), it should be sufficient for all but the steepest hills. So long as the lowest gear ratio is less than 100% (i.e. The chain rings are 48/36/26 and the cogs are 11-32. The drivetrain uses Shimano gears in 3×9 configuration. The rest of the review focuses on the bike’s features in more detail. I test rode the Trek 7.2 FX as well and found it to ride just as well but I bought the discounted 7.4 at around the same price. Maroon Red colour that’s different to all the black colour bikes popular at the moment.
700x32C wheels with slick tyres for balance of comfort and speed.Carbon fork and ergonomic handle bar grips for very comfortable hands on the handle bar.Plenty of gears (27 speed) for tackling the hills around where I live.After looking at a number of bikes, there were a couple of reasons I settled on the 7.4 FX: As it turned out, after July is a good time to buy a new bike as the manufacturers are starting to roll out next year’s models, so you can most likely get the current year’s bikes at a discount. I bought the Trek 7.4 FX 2014 version in October 2014.