patentcad

In 1989 I was on vacation in Calfornia, and stopped in at a bicycle shop in Redwood City (south of SF). I purchased a Trek 2500 lugged CF bicycle with 8 speed Dura Ace (downtube indexed shifting, STI brifters came a couple of years later) and a bike travel bag (that I still use).



The bike was amazing at the time, so unlike anything I had ever ridden that I bought it on the spot. Similar in many respects to my Cannondale Six13, although the latter bicycle is much more like the bikes of today than this 20 year old Trek. Note the aluminum fork.

After that I wound up with a 1991 Spectrum Ti (Merlin), then the 1995 Ibis Ti Road, the Cannondale Six13 (2006), now the Cervelo S2. That's my road bike progression over 20 years.

I'm still slow.

subframe

I believe Kestrel made the first production CF frame, no?

x136 

I really like those early lugged CF frames. Do you still have it?

BengeBoy 

Nice, clean cable routing. I like it.

patentcad

Quite possible. Do you know what year that was for Kestrel?

When I saw the Trek I was really taken with it, it was an instant sale, I loved the bike. I don't have it, but a friend of mine (who I haven't seen in a while) may still have it hanging in his garage.

After all these years this Cervelo is the first monocoque CF frame I've owned. Frames like the Cervelo do feel a bit numb compared to bikes like the Ibis Ti and the Cannondale, but they offset that with other ride and handing qualities that are unique to that kind of bicycle (I noted those qualities on the other monocoque CF frames I've test ridden, most notably the newer Trek).

Bluechip

The Exxon Graftek was built in the mid 70's but was not much of a success.

patentcad

I'm talking mainstream, mass market. I don't recall any other manufacturer offering anything like that Trek 2500 bicycle 20 years ago, it was very cutting edge at the time. Even Kestrel would have to be considered a high end specialty boutique brand compared to Trek.

That's why I have so much respect for Trek, they have always made innovative and cutting edge bicycles.

unterhausen

I think you could buy an Exxon Graftek. Maybe they didn't make enough to call it a production bike.

I was wondering about the claim by Kestrel. Company was started by Bevil Hogg, same guy that started Trek. (don't listen to the Burkes, they just wrote checks for the first 5 years)

ericm979

That's my friend Mike's Trek store. It's still there, he's one of the largest Trek road bike dealers in the country now.

Vitus made carbon bikes very similar to their aluminum bikes in the mid 80s. Carbon tubes glued into aluminum lugs. They were smaller diameter tubes than the Trek... I remember seeing those Treks and thinking their tubes were gigantic. Jonathan Boyer used a Vitus Carbone for RAAM in '85.

sstorkel

Wikipedia says that Kestrel made the first all-carbon frame in 1986, and the first carbon fork in 1989.

Velo Vol 

How much does the bike weigh? What did it cost?

pdedes

Around the same time, I bought a specialized allez epic. I've also had a colnago carbitubo.

gpelpel

I bought a used 1989 Specialized Allez Epic Carbon when I started road biking five years ago. I think the Specialized and the Trek were built in the same factory in Taiwan by Giant. They shared the same construction and look with the nude carbon tubes and the aluminum lugs and fork.
They were nice rides but very flexy. They also had a major bonding issue in their first year of production with numerous cases of glue breakdown between the tubes and the lugs. The problem was solved in the 1989 production. These models were produced until the mid 90s.

LWaB

ALAN made bonded carbon/alu frames about the same time as Vitus, so a couple of years before Trek.

EventServices

I remember seeing Michael Secrest riding a white Kestral CF in a crit in the old Tour de Michigan in 1986. it cost about $5000 at that time. We thought he was absolutely insane for riding that expensive bike in a crit.

Ratfish

I saw a Trek exactly like that one for sale on CL...don't think it was too spendy.

subframe

that really is a cool frame.

Tristan86

I had a trek 2100 that was an aluminum carbon mix, all the main tubes carbon like the one in the OP. It had 7 speed shimano RSX sti. I liked it alot

coasting 

why do manufacturers generally not make aluminium lugged carbon frames any more. Is it just inherently inferior to monocoque or is it just a production cost/ease thing.

FlashBazbo

Not the first CF racing bike. Not really all that close.

In 1974, when I bought my aluminum-framed Mossberg, they also sold a lugged CF bike called the Racelite. I wanted it sooooooo bad . . . but my parents were a little shocked at the price of the aluminum bike. CF was out of the question. ($1,200 when $1,200 was a LOT of money. You could buy a pretty good new motorcycle for the same price.)

Check it out:

https://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/v/...ge+01.jpg.html

kgatwork

If you read this link, you'll see that the first production CF bike was made for Trek, by the parents of this company.

https://www.aegisbicycles.com/about.html

patentcad

From Aegis Bicycle's website:

>>Initially, our team was contracted by Trek to produce carbon fiber tubing (pre-OCLV) for their model 2500. The Trek 2500 was manufactured by bonding carbon fiber tubing to aluminum lugs. Even though the 2500 was a huge success and marked a key turning point in the bicycle industry, it still employed traditional construction processes - lugging. By joining carbon fiber tubing to aluminum lugs, we felt carbon's greatest inherent quality, shock absorption, was lost. <<

Well if that's the case, perhaps the 2500 was the first production CF bike from a major manufacturer. I had never seen anything like it at the time. And I don't agree that the bike had a harsh ride. Not at all. I thought it rode like butter, that's one reason I bought it back then. The Cannondale Six13 which employs CF bonded to alu lugs rides even better. Better road feel than the monocoque CF frames, but not as stiff or light.

FlashBazbo

Was Trek a major manufacturer then? I don't remember having heard their name in the 70's. Mossberg fit the definition of major manufacturer better then.

patentcad

We're talking 1989, not the 70's, and by that time Trek was the largest bicycle company in the USA. What the hell is 'Mossberg'? Never heard of them.

gurana

That's pretty interesting. I especially like the acknowledgement at the end that, despite some of our efforts to buy performance, the bike does not make the rider. (An assertion, I've come to realize, you've been making for some time now.)

Reminds me of when I was in high school. I was a decent musician in my own right, but was always overshadowed by the priciple flute player who was one grade ahead of me. While I was maybe somewhere in the top 5 of my Archdiocese by my senior year (about 20 catholic high schools in the DC area) he was probably somewhere in the top 5 of the country, probably since his freshman year. He was good enough to win, through competition, a $10k flute. After he got it, I remember wondering out loud how good I would be or sound with such an instrument. Being brutally honest, he said something to the effect that it wouldn't make that much of a difference.