On Wednesday, February 6, 2019 at 5:04:48 PM UTC-8, Mark J. wrote:
Stopped at the LBS on the way home today, to look at a Trek gravel bike
in person. There are a lot of unpaved roads here in the Willamette
Valley as well as in the mountains around it.

It was nice, certainly drool-worthy in the
I'm-not-really-serious-yet-about-buying sort of way.

There were lots of attachment points for use on long, hot summer rides
that don't go by a 7-Eleven.

I like the wider bars (they looked wider than the 46's I have on my
Domane, but maybe they were the same). Hydraulic disks (see our latest
RBR discussion, heh), nice wide tires.

THEN

when I was talking about fender mounts, the guy mentions putting fenders
on a "Domane +" E-bike, so I go take a look at that.

It's a full carbon fast road bike with a electric assist. Forgive me,
RBR, for I have sinned and coveted this bike. I'm going to try hard to
wait until at least 70 before getting one, partly 'cause I fear the
decline into potatohood that it could spark, but I was tempted. Having
another 100-200W in one's pocket would be something.

Mark J.

The Bike Gallery (Trek) shop downtown also has one of the Orbea Gain series.. https://www.orbea.com/us-en/ebikes/r...ain-m20-usa-19 Orbea also has a groovy gravel e-assist: https://www.orbea.com/us-en/ebikes/r...ain-m21-usa-19 Also available in aluminum, although I'm not a 1X fan. The stealth e-assist bike is becoming really popular. Muzi's Bianchi is beautiful. Some of the e-assists aren't that stealthy. The Cannondale Synapse looks like a pregnant guppy. I'd get a full-on eBike if I lived somewhere like Vancouver and commuted to downtown -- beat the traffic over the bridge and fly into town. It's kind of like cheating. But for my current short commute and weekend riding, yes, going electric would move me one step closer to the potato abyss.

-- Jay Beattie.