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Old 02-07-09 | 04:00 PM
  #7  
Hirohsima
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,013
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From: Sacramento
Not sure if this helps but I used to build up Trek and Specialized bikes at a bike shop in the late 90's early 2000's. Built up their lowest end Trek 800's and Specialized Hardrocks to the highest end road and MTB bikes of the time (S-Works Specialized and Trek OCLV frames).

I can tell you without reservation that model for model, the Specialized bikes were of higher quality in terms of fit and finish and overall build ease. Wheels on Specialized (both cheap and expensive) were of consistantly higher quality, tension, and truness.

Out of the box, Specialized was ALWAYS better.

In terms of frame quality (since the components between most models was pretty similar) I would rate them about even. We had equal number of warranty repairs for both brands, which is to say very few.

In-house brands (Bontrager for Trek and Specialized in-house stuff) were about equal,.... where if pressed I would say the low end Specialized stuff was better and the high end Trek stuff was better (for in-house branded components only).

I still prefer Specialized over Trek for nearly any given model..

The question you asked was pretty general, and as others have posted, most of what you asked can be answered by the mnfd websites. So my answer was more tailored to overall quality rather than part-for-part comparisons.
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