This notion that a kid (or anyone, for that matter) needs a great bike to start racing is just weird. Anyone who's done any racing understands that the bike is about the least important thing.

Has anyone thought that one of the reasons we see less young people on bicycles and this sport in general is because of the perceived danger of our roads. Increased road congestion is a thing, parents are much more risk adverse when it comes to their children.

The thought of a 12 year old pedaling away for the day in a major urban city is unimaginable today yet was a norm when I was young.

With all the alternatives to Trek bicycles, do I really care?
I have nothing against the Company or their Products, but aside from a relatively small design team and HQ in Waterloo WI, and (according to a search) approx 1,800 total US employment (largely low/medium-wage bike shop employees) there isn't much to be lost, even if goes completely out of business (highly unlikely).

Maybe someone in Taiwan or mainland China will rescue the business? Investing in America's "small companies" that depend on international fair trade is very risky these days.

If the US Dollar continues its' slide against other currencies - it might be a cheap acquisition.

Yet, they put them on ebikes instead.

Nothing to think about. The answer is out in plain view.

Phones (social media), video games and e-bikes.

That is a common topic with my spit and whittle (and repair bikes) club. We give bikes away at our co-op and most of the kids now want e-bikes. And not just any e-bike but those with throttles.

It's got so bad that now we have people suing Meta and Instagram.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/27/tech/...y-meta-youtube

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89kdpjn7eqo

Of course its not the apps or social media that are bad. It's poor parenting. Parents need to grow a pair and take some control over their kids life.

I couldn't care less about that company. Don't like their marketing and business practices and the value of their products vs alternatives.

I've only read the first page of this.

Factors for everyone: Post covid slump, boom in electric bikes, so sagging in unpowered bikes.

Factors for Trek alone: Premium prices and constant unnecessary change. Trek used to sell a really great touring bike in the 520, it last came with a proven chrome-moly frame (with a level top tube, in multiple sizes), good and reliable components (notably ultra-wide 3X gearing), and with excellent racks front and rear, and discs, that made it a great value in a turn-key heavy touring bike, for about $1400 I think, not cheap, but a proven design and well equipped. My LBS had a Masi that was similarly equipped at about the same price, and I preferred the bar-end shifters to Trek's brifters on a touring bike where durability and reliability are everything. Both models have been gone for a few years now. I'd say dumb, but they must not have been selling.

Kind of a shame that the USA frame manufacturing facilities for Trek, Cannondale, et al, are all gone, given that tariffs may blow the imports out of the water.

Fortunately for those of us capable, the used market has infinite supplies of good, rebuildable bikes. There are worse things than kids being required to learn how to rebuild a bike to get their first good bike. That's a feature, not a bug. My nephew, about to enter college, doesn't know how to RIDE a bike, much less work on it. I wish I had known sooner, I would have made a priority of getting him a bike, and teaching him both.

Bad parenting - yes. Lawsuit - for the pursuit of profits - bad. Lawsuits to push change, maybe not so bad.

Bad apps and social media - absolutely. SM is 100% designed to hook you and keep you hooked. SM is not a product, SM is not selling us products - we are the product, our face time is being sold - the longer our face is in the screen, the more profit they make. Man made and AI algorithms backed by a touch of human psychology (actual courses taught in some tech schools, Berkely being a big one) are designed to keep you scrolling. If this or that isn't keeping your interest, they will pop something else on the screen - the longer you look at said something, the more of it you get.

Could be that kids need some protection from these types of things - should start at home, I agree 100%. But sadly it often won't.

Tie this into bikes and bike prices - we are suckers, easily manipulated by marketing - even if we think we are not.

You say that like it's a bad thing. Technology always gets blamed, but marketing has been a thing almost from day one....

I dunno - you make the call.

Current technology, social media, is designed like a casino. Designed to keep us engaged for as long as possible. (These are not my words by the way - this comes from the tech industry people). We are now a product instead of being sold a product. But we get nothing in return, except for staring at a screen longer. Tech made the conscious decision to be profitable from us - a vast, endless source of income with no real investment needed.

Good for business - absolutely. Good for people - meh? Adults make their own choices - even if they don't understand the why. Kids on the other hand - they don't really need to be bombarded with tic tok content driven by algorithms that have only one goal - to keep the kid glued to the screen for as long as possible.

If the kid spends just a few seconds longer looking at something questionable - that is instantly read by the system and the kid is served more of similar questionable content - and more, and more... so yes, I do say that like its a bad thing - absolutely.

Sure, but the problem isn't the technology or it's capabilities, the problem, as it has always been is people and greed....

Bingo. Around my neighborhood I would estimate that 3 out of 10 kids under 18 are riding some kind of electric bike or scooter. Aaand, of the kids riding electrics, most of them look, dare I say, weak-ish - let's just say not rugged?

All I know is that when I started riding a two-wheeled bike my mom and dad never saw me until dinner time - and even then my mom nagged me to come in and eat. Heck, that's the way it was for all of us kids back then. A bike was freedom.

I will acknowledge though that "if" we had electric bikes and scooters in the mid-1960's we'd probably be riding those (too).

Kids in our neighborhood are mostly riding gas powered 4-wheelers, small motorcycles or mini-bikes. There is one that rides an e-bike, must be a class 3 as he flies along with the rest of them. Last time I rode the popular MUP, guess it was about half e-bikes and half bicycles, though I see more and more e-bikes as time goes on. A friend up the street, with a mountain bike, also bought one for his kid. Haven't seen it, but he said that his kid doesn't ride it. Mentioned it was $3k, so isn't junk, and his kid said he wanted an e-bike, not a mtn bike. Kid is 15.

Touring. 3x drivetrain and Chrome moly frame are dead, so they probably weren't selling well. (see the thread on ACA)

It's been replaced by gravel riding, 1x drivetrain and carbon or aluminum frames being the preferred frame material for the majority of consumers.

The 520 was discussed above. The frameset (now with an AL fork) is listed on its European site, but only in 3 sizes, and they are all unavailable. $1,400 dollars more recently was not a bad price. The going price for a Surly LHT with rim brakes in 2011 was just under $1,100. (Ask me how I know.) I won't repeat what I wrote previously other than to say that, based on my past experiences and observations, loaded touring in the U.S. is on a steep decline. Several years ago Trek came out with the 920, which it touted as its "adventure touring bike" with 28H wheels. I believe that is gone as well.

REI now offers only one touring-type bike, as opposed to three that were available a few years ago. It's more of a bikepacking model than a true loaded touring bike, with carbon fork. The Masi Giramondo is still listed on its site, and you can find them at through online retailers.

Nope, that accurately describes disposable income.

Discretionary income is the money you CHOOSE to spend on things you want. Disposable income is use incorrectly more than correctly in the media and internet. Oh well. Monkey see, monkey do.

I'm an astronaut, not an economist, but I do know your definition is not correct.

Feel free to write to the authors and publishers of the marketing course work I took years ago. I'm sure they'd love the correction!

You can still get 920 framesets for about $1k

Chrome-moly frames seemed dead, then along came Surly and the Long Haul Trucker, and there seemed to be a big resurgence in 4130 steel, as well as a number of other models and brands, such as Kona. I'm not an expert, but it seems that quality 4130 frames are still around, for a reason.

On my 20"/406 wheels, I can get just low enough gearing on a 50/34 110mm BCD compact double with a 30-34 low cog. Large wheels would require pie-plate large cassettes, or 3X crank with 74mm BCD low. I don't like large 1X cassettes because for sufficient lateral stiffness of the biggest cogs, they need to be riveted together, and that makes cleaning the cassette a pain, versus all the cogs coming apart for cleaning. I also like the better chainline of 2X or 3X gearing on a hard climb in low-low. 1X is like automatic transmissions; Easier, but not necessarily better, for experienced users.

Guess I’m in the minority. And I tour on gravel with my LHT regularly.

These apps are designed to habituate the user. This isn't some "Oops!" moment; it's by design. For profit. If you can't see this, you've fallen for the ruse.

I assume bad parenting is behind our homelessness and gun crime too, eh?

"Poor parenting" is how you blame the victims and relieve the profiteers from any responsibility.

We really may rue the day we introduced screens to kids and schools without second thought.