GT ZuM 5.0 - how does it look?

Question

I'm looking for a light hybrid for commuting and recreation. (I had a very old Motobecane Nomade road bike, replaced with a Fuji Absolute DX and found out the hard way that a cable lock is not a good enough deterrent against stealing a brand new bike.) As much as I would like to get another DX, I don't have much money. Does anyone have any experience with this bike, or opinions on the specs? It's very hard to find reviews on it. Only 1 chainwheel but 8 gears in the cassette...do you think that would be annoying in a moderately hilly town? (Madison, WI)

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=24180&subcategory_ID=3040

Answer 1

I just bought a ZuM 5.0 yesterday as a compliment to my Schwinn mountain bike. The MTB is just too much to lug around the streets when I want to do a casual ride so I checked out the ZuM on the Performance Bike website and it's specs seemed to be just what I was looking for: decent components, MTB style seating, low price.

I went to the local Performance Bike shop (Newark, DE) and test rode an XL framed ZuM and fell in love with it.

Even better: the in-store price was $20 cheaper than online.

So, I bought it.

I've been on two short street rides in the past 24 hours and it's exactly what I had hoped for. It's fairly hilly around here (Pike Creek Valley) yet I've no problem climbing the hills and find the gearing to be similar to that of where I normally ride my MTB: middle front spocket and 8 gears out back.

The bike is light. Not higher-priced road bike light but certainly lighter than my MTB.

The specs/components are typical for this price point: Shimano Acera rear gears, TruVativ cranks, Tektro brakes, Alex rims, WTB seat, Kenda tires, 6061 aluminum frame, fork, bars and stem.

For me, I dig the lower profile frame (even the XL size is low but long) and smooth but not super skinny tires.

I'll own this bike for quite some time.