nomo4me

https://www2.trekbikes.com/Bikes/Road...100C/index.php
It doesn't look like this thing has been discussed here much, based on my search. For those who don't know, it's a thick Urethane "bumper" between the seat tube and CF chain stay of the frame, held in place by a tensioned steel or Ti bolt.

I have to admit, I purchased a Trek 2100c early this year, partly because of the SPA widget. I'd never ridden a road bike and and if I was duped I was duped. I can't tell you how the effective the SPA system is at absorbing shock because I've never ridden another road bike. But the back end feels pretty tame to me when the front end of the bike is doing a high frequency dance over a rough section of road. Maybe it works, I dunno.
Reason I ask is I've always been kind of intrigued by gismos bourne more of marketing neccessity than functional benefit. On the one hand I abhor the squinty eyed little marketing twerps for taking advantage of those who base a purchase decision on a feature they wish to believe valid which can not or has not been demonstrated to actually deliver the stated benefit.
On the other, I the cynical side of me kind of admires folks that are brash and shrewd enough to take advantage of that same subset of the market; there are plenty of dimwits and suckers out there, someone may as well be milking them. No one's taking down Benny Hinn, right?
Many hobby industries -fishing & golf to name a couple - make the bulk of their margins on gimicky gadgets that are nothing more than marketing hype.
Maybe SPA falls into this category, and maybe not. It's kind of odd that Trek would isolate this gizmo to the "c" series of their 2100 and 2300 bikes. That's gotta be a tiny percentage of their total production. Maybe they are "field testing" it, with eyes on migrating it into other parts of the product line. Maybe SPA compromises frame stiffness beyond the point where those not looking for "comfort" bikes will tolerate it's presence.
Any thoughts as to the legitimacy of Trek's SPA?

nomo4me

Any bike without SPA sucks.
Pit Bulls, like Michael Jackson, are obvious victims of public perception
Dubya is a great President and a remarkable intellect
Anything Campy is decidedly inferior to anything Shimano
Brawny is not clearly the quicker picker upper, anyone who says so is an a$$hat
Bump

Grasschopper

Well they outfitted their Madones with it for the Paris Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders and a few of the Disco guys used it including Hincapie. Klein Reve also uses it and a couple guys here seem to like theirs.

Do you feel you loose pedaling efficency? That would be my concern. If I ever get my wife on a drop bar bike I might have to get her one of these.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2005.../hincapie_bike
https://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?...005/news/04-27 Scroll down on this one.

nomo4me

I have the most pliant insert of the 3 grades. My 240 lbs doesn't compress the bumper when I'm seated. I have to assume it only compresses under shock/bumps at speed.
Does it compress on the downstroke? It would take a more finely tuned rider than this noob to sense it.

nomo4me

BTW, thanks for the links. Interesting reading that these have been incorporated into race bikes. It will be interesting to see how Trek incorporates it into other bikes.

fore0121

Ask Hipcycler about his Klien, I think it has the same insert.
f

geog_dash

I don't think SPA is just a widget tossed out by clueless marketers hoping to get lucky. There is definitely an emerging market for road bikes with a few amenities. This is driven partly by aging baby boomers who want to stay active but are less agreeable to violent jolts than they were twenty years ago, and partly by the detereoration of most U.S. roads. It seems most major manufacturers are bringing out road bikes with relatively relaxed geometry working in concert with carbon or elastomer shock absorbers.

I have a Klein Reve with SPA. I had my last road bike - a heavy steel Peugot UO10 - twenty years ago, so comparisons will be general at best. Nonetheless, I have clear memories of the Peugot slamming seams and patches in the awful Houston roads. I often had the impression someone was pounding the bottom of the bike with a hammer. I get no such imagery on my Klein. I still feel the bumps, but the jolt is much less percussive. I doubt that SPA is the last word in shock absorption, but I think it's a very credible and competent early attempt to serve a new market segment. IMHO

khuon

The SPA thing is nothing new. Linkless softtail designs have existed in the MTB world for almost 15 years now.

As far as road bikes go, have we all forgotten the Moots Vamoots YBB?



Or how about the Dean Torreys (yes i know it's a CX bike)?

nomo4me

Yes, that's my experience as well. I've recently switched my daily route to one with several miles of recent chip seal. Coming home I hit 30mph on one stretch. I get a bit of buzz on the front end even with a carbon fork but the back end stays pretty calm.