bjoerges

Full Disclosure: I work sales at a Trek Retailer

I happened across Trek making a huge announcement today that they are removing the Gary Fisher brand and replacing the lineup with a "Gary Fisher Collection by Trek" series. If you care about any of that, check out trek's site.

The bigger news that I am personally very excited to see is the Trek GFC Transport. It's an Aluminum cargo bike with basic components (Acera RD, Disc-Ready Rear with a basic Tektro rear v-brake, BB5 Disc Front). Comes with a big cargo back ad built in folding side racks and a big front rack. Super neat but I expect to be expensive is the Ride+ electric assist version. No word yet on pricing for either.

Check it out: https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes...ity/transport/

Hopefully these take off and put more cargo bikes on the streets!

travelmama

I am about to gag! This is the mother of triplets (Big Dummy, Yuba and Ute) and pretty damn smooth. Shoot, I want to know how much that thing cost because I am about ready to buy a Madsen.

mconlonx

They're also doing the Gary Fisher Signature Collection Transport. And even more exciting, the Transport+, with trek proprietary BionX pedelec electric assist.

Huge.

They seem to have dropped the Fisher Simple City 3 and 8, I'm hoping it's to clear out stock for a better IGH/utility line of bikes more in the Specialized Globe model of utility bike. Sad to see them go, but never huge sellers.

Excitement in the mtn bike end of things--finally a budget mtn ss bike, and my fav bike of 2011 so far, the retro, rigid Sawyer... With 2x9 drivetrain and separable stay of some kind to facillitate belt drive conversion.

Interesting times...

Arcanum

Not bad! I like the look of the bag, and the folding horizontal racks. I wonder what the bike's load capacity is.

jtgotsjets

That is pretty sick. Trek really seems to be dedicated to adding some well thought-out practical bikes to their lineup.

My girlfriend just got the mixte version of the Belleville (which shares a front rack with this model). Comes with the front porteur rack and a wonderfully styled matching rear rack, internal gear hub (thanks to a lucky craigslist find, she's about to upgrade from a 3 spd to an 8 spd Alfine), front dynamo hub, fenders, lights and internal wiring for the electronics. If that wasn't enough, it also has a derailleur hanger if you want to change up the drivetrain and the porteur rack's lower attachments double as low-rider brazeons. I honestly cannot think of a more versatile, well-thought out mass-market bike. The Cross-Check comes close for sure.

And did I mention it is totally beautiful?



(ps, I am not a trek sales rep, i just think this bike is the bee's knees!)


eta: just noticed that the bike Mr Fisher is standing next to proudly on the Gary Fisher Collection main page is the men's version of the Belleville. Perhaps he approves?

bjoerges

The bikes I mentioned were the Gary Fisher Collection Transport and Transport+.

The new Waubesa is an 8-speed internal. Certainly not the styling of the Simple City, but just as practical.
https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes..._city/waubesa/

mconlonx

D'oh! Yes, reread your OP a bit more carefully, sorry about the repeat info.

Here's the Transport+



This may very well be my next new car.

Missed the waubesa--good to see them keeping an IGH, chain drive bike in the lineup. Price is good.

The rest of the Fast City line seems to duplicate what Trek has going on with their PDX and Valencia bikes. I'd say it is next on the block if they are looking to get rid of duplicate models. Would be great to see either one line or the other go with IGH option, from a 3sp all the way up to a full-zoot Alfine 11sp bike.

mconlonx

BTW, I want very much to turn one of these into my next commuter. Looks like it would be perfect with different crank/chainrings, add on commute/utility accoutrements:

Sawyer:

purplepeople

I build cargo bikes, trailers and recumbents and I will go on record as saying that the weight distribution on that Trek Cargo bike is going to be a problem. Specifically, the fully loaded rack or pannier will put the centre of the load behind the rear axle. It will be less stable than any of the current crop of production long-tails and even the Xtracycle conversion itself. Ideally, the cargo is best placed ahead of the rear axle to actually distribute the weight evenly between the front and rear wheel.

:)ensen.

tatfiend 

Agreed. The same thing was noted on the rootsradicals Xtracycle group.

The bike seems to be almost a clone of the Kona Ute with similar wheelbase, frame layout and material choice. The Trek does appear to have the cargo pannier mounted slightly further to the rear, a poor choice as you correctly point out.

Both the Kona Ute and Trek are compromizes between a normal bike and the longtail standard. The shortened wheelbase makes for easier storage but compromizes cargo hauling use.

urider

It's nice to see that 10 years later, Trek is embracing the LongTail concept. This is what we can call visionaries. I do agree about the weight distribution issue especially with an added elec hub.
Bags are nice copies of the Go-Getter bags from Yuba.
Anyway cool to see an other long bike.

NormanF

Looks like the Gary Fisher Klunker. Swap the bars for a cool cruiser bar and now you're crusin' in style!

Roll-Monroe-Co

I don't get it. With the rear rack frame, the bike is that long anyway. Why not just move the rear wheel back**********??

purplepeople

Maybe they want it to fit on some rail-based rack.

:)ensen.

bjoerges

I have a feeling that a big part of the wheelbase issue comes from material choice. The Xtracycle Free Radical kit, Xtracycle's Radish, and the Surly Big Dummy are all steel bikes and the Ute and Trek Transport/Transport+ are Aluminum. Perhaps extending the wheelbase to match the steel designs caused some stresses on the weld points or tubing when loaded with cargo. Rather than sacrifice weight savings for Aluminum, they took a hit to heavy-loaded smoothness.

xtrajack

looks interesting, not enough to get rid of my X.

crackerdog

Looks like it is made to fail. With the load behind the rear axle, how is this different than any bike with a rear rack? It is going to be wonky to ride with any weight in it. Doesn't Trek have ANYONE that rides utility bikes?

Roll-Monroe-Co

Load it up with milk and beer and canned goods behind the rear axle, fire up the electric hub to 30mph, and ride an EPIC WHEELIE all the way home!!!!

bugly64

It looks too much like a Ute. The load looks it is going to be carried too high. I like the fold down wide-loaders.

LeeG

The transport looks very good. I just sold my Ute because I'm not pleased with the handling. 26" wheels make more sense for a utility bike anyway. I think the large bags give the impression that putting weight that far back is a good idea. It's not but on my Ute I had two big fold out bags that held a large cloth grocery bag in each and they were located as far forward as possible, not anywhere as huge as those bags. Also the OldManMountain front rack helped the handling on the Ute and would be more to my preference than the Trek one as it located the rack close down to the tire and not as far forward as the Trek appears to. That kickstand looks like it'll be as useless as the side kickstand on the Ute I got. I had to get an extra kickstand for the back end as the bike barely stayed up without the bags loaded.
So what's the price?

nwmtnbkr

I would expect that pricing will be fairly high, especially for the electric version. My prediction is that the electric version will be priced between $2,900-$3,400 USD. Having read threads posted in the e-bike forum on problems with the new Trek line of e-bikes, I think I'd steer clear of the electrified version for a while. Trek needs to work out bugs, not just on the builds with the Bionx system but with its process in handling system/warranty problems with their line of e-bikes. I suspect that Trek's going to have problems competing with the Big Dummy and the Xtracycle.

redsox59

To all those who say the weight will be distributed too far back:

Don't you think that Trek, a professional bike manufacture, would be aware of such issues and design a way to solve that problem?

jtgotsjets

Yeah, I like how everyone is talking about the ride quality of a bike they've never even actually seen, let alone ridden

purplepeople

It's not just talk. I build cargo bikes and know first hand how poorly a bike will ride loaded behind the rear axle.

:)ensen

Torrilin

Nope. It would freaking make sense to have the Wingra, Monona and Mendota have IGH. Until this year, they also had useless suspension forks. Now they vaguely resemble something you'd see around the lakes.

The Atwood is still an insult to the neighborhood tho.