[QUOTE=cyccommute;13395261]You are tilting at windmills again, Slim.
You are basing your arguments on information that I would call dodgy at best.
Consider your source...a know nothing phone rep at Trek.
I wasn't talking to just a "phone rep", I was talking to customer service people at Trek. I was talking to salesmen who worked at Trek dealerships. These are all people you would ordinarily expect to know about their commodities, the actual goods that they're trying to peddle. If you're a salesman, and I ask you a very basic question like, "What's in that basket, you're selling?" and that prompts you to tell me, "Just a moment, Ill be right back", that tells me that you don't know your product. However, that might not necessarily be your fault. Why don't you know your product? ...Maybe it's for the same reason that the content of the product is not posted on your website...Maybe it's for the same reason that you're trying to camouflage your goods by using the word "platinum" to describe some type of steel you're attempting to sell.
All steel has a high tensile strength so they could all be called 'hi
ten' steel. Some have a slightly higher tensile strength than others so
they can be used in smaller quantities and still provide enough strength to be
useable. A frame that is uses carbon steel...the stuff that was called 'hi
ten' steel back in the day...probably isn't going to be drawn into
"Custom-butted Platinum series steel". Pigs ear/silk purse. Most
likely, the steel used for the Trek Lane is a 4100 series steel with from 0.5%
to 0.9% chromium and 0.12% to 0.3% molybdenum in it.
Most people in any industry that deal with steel, all know the difference between hi-tensile steel and chromoly steel. Hi-tensile steel does not not have chromium and molybdenum added to it whereas chromoly steel does. Now we could get extremely technical and measure the tensile strength of all grades of steel and say, "Hey look! The tensile value for that grade is above x, therefore it qualifies as
Hi-Tensile". Nope! That's not acceptable, Cyccommute! That's just not how the interpretation goes...
Helmart bikes are what they are...plain and simple. You can put all kinds of
lipstick on them but they are still going to be pigs. They might be purty pigs
but they are still going to be pigs.
Walmart bikes differ from whatever other bikes you're referring to, primarily because of cheap and poorly installed components. Their frames are comparable to many other frames made by the big five bicycle manufacturers. Once again, it's their components that suck! Of course, there are many frames built by the big five, that Walmart bike frames could never aspire to reach in quality. I mean, Walmart just isn't a top-of-line kinda place.
The Lane, and other steel bikes at it's level including the Randonee, LHT, Soma,
etc, are a much higher quality bike. I, personally won't go out and buy any of
the above given my meh? attitude towards steel, but you could buy the Lane and
ride it with the confidence that it's a good bike at a pretty good price. It's
not a rip-off or a scam. You're just reading too much into it
.
The Lane is a bicycle that has a hi-tensile steel frame. It is therefore, not favorably endowed with the technological properties that advances the cycling world of steel, today. It therefore, should not be placed in the same category with Randonee, Soma, and most certainly not the Surly LHT...OMG! I almost choked on that one!
I'm
not reading too much into the subject matter! ..There are red flags waving all over this Trek Lane thing. There's just too many weird things going on. Sales people not knowing what it's made of...Sales people not knowing where to find the info...Customer Service people not knowing for certain...Websites not clearly indicating what type of steel is really being used...Website camouflaging the actual identity of the steel frame. Many many many things smell of fish, here.
- Slim
