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Hah! Yeah, I put on my pedals and seat pack but didn't take off the reflectors (yet). I was just in a hurry to get out on the trails after getting it home and before the sun started to set.

Well that explains quite a bit. I put in an order for a Trek Fuel EX 8 back in August, but of course everything is on backorder these days, not just bikes. Yesterday they called me to let me know it had come in (it's FANTASTIC!). When I picked up the bike yesterday afternoon, the employee said that more would be revealed in January about why they would have better access to Trek bikes going forward. He also mentioned that they were going to be dropping Specialized from their inventory. He couldn't say more at the time, and I didn't press. Here's a pic of the new bike right before the inaugural ride on the SATN yesterday afternoon.

It hit me HARD over the past few weeks. I got a steroid shot on December 30th and feel much, much better. Obviously not an ideal solution, but better than the alternative IMO.

I'll weigh in as well. I live right by the Hielscher greenbelt and have 5-6 (maybe more) routes that I rotate through regularly on the SATN (which is just freaking awesome!). One of these is from my house to Slaughter Creek via the north route, one or two laps there, and then back via either the north route or, more often, the south route to the median on 45 and then home. The climbs on both return routes annoy me because they're not very interesting, and both are steady, mostly wide open climbs. I can do both, but I often end up walking a bit just for a brief respite between laps at Slaughter Creek and the more interesting parts after the respective climbs. That's more common in the heat vs. when it's 20+ degrees cooler. Not complaining at all because I feel incredibly fortunate to have this wealth of trails right outside my front door, but I can certainly understand folks not liking those small stretches of trail.

Good find! Just ordered one for myself.