Originally Posted by
Trakhak
"I never thought I'd buy a Trek . . . "
Trek is one of only two companies that began by hand-building bike frames in the United States and grew to be among the dominant players in the bike business worldwide. Trek's story is similar to that of Fender guitars: both were small companies that prospered through innovation in a conservative market.
So why is it that people sometimes tacitly apologize for buying a Trek, but Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars (and Precision and Jazz basses) are admired and coveted everywhere? Why the difference?
Great-looking bike, by the way.
You don't see Fender guitars with a bigger neck to accommodate a Fender logo on it (not talking headstock though the 70s had the bigger logo if memory serves) .
In the end I think the comparison is harder to make beyond yes they started as smaller American companies. Bike and guitar retail are similar in some ways as speciality retail is but also quite divergent (or should I say at different Checkpoints yuk yuk yuk) Plus you have so many famous artists who play Fender and they promote that a lot. To a degree nobody cares as much who rides Trek as the people who do it aren't always as famous beyond people who follow pro-cycling. Beyond L.A. (not to go in deeper with it just mentioning) probably nobody in general public can think of another famous Trek rider whereas you could name tons of people who played Fenders from Kurt Cobain to Eric Clapton to Jimi Hendrix to Tom Delonge to the Vaughn Brothers (Stevie Ray and Jimmie)...