Originally Posted by
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?
No. I don't.
Case in point: My 2006 Trek Portland. Wonderful bike, except for the routing of the rear brake cable.
Those infallible factory engineers of yours forgot the first rule of cables:
Thou shalt not have S-bends in the housing. The S-bend in the rear brake cable made actuation spongy and impossible to lock, then releasing the cable often didn't release the brake. It was genius: A brake that doesn't stop, and drags all the time.
I've run it correctly myself, (although it required ugly zip ties) and they finally noticed and fixed it two years later with the 2008 model.
So no, I don't think they considered the impact of the load racks and the battery pack aft of the rear axle, and putting the battery pack up nice and high waving like a flag either.
Oh, BTW, you have heard of the steerer breaking off on the 2010 Madone's carbon fork, haven't you?