Oh, and I also hate large companies because they seem to have taken all other brands off the market. When I first got into cycling, any given LBS would stock at least 20 different brands of bikes. Now I walk into the largest shop in my ares and it's either Specialized, Trek, or Giant. No wonder I bought my Bianchi online.

Thanks. I stand corrected and more knowledgable.

I think it's nice to see an American manufacturing company that is competitive, doing well and turns out solid products, many of which are still made here by American workers. Not just the high end stuff either. My 2100, 520 and 970 all have frames built in the US. Good solid bikes, no problems, no complaints.

Yeah, blame it on the forums...lol

i've never said anything negative about Trek frames or the company, itself, but i would never go out and purchase one of their bikes. there are just so many options when looking for a frame, even for CF frames... Parlee, Calfee, Crumpton, yummm

I've heard that if an LBS wants to carry Trek bikes that they have to devote a very large percentage of their floor to trek products. Is this true? A few shops in my area seem to support this notion - the ones that carry trek, seem mostly trek, with a small section of the shop being everything else but...

I didn't buy one because of the Lance factor and i also don't like the geometry.

I figure that Trek is just so popular that it's more worthwhile for a shop to carry a huge selection of that brand. The one LBS I found around here that "proudly" carries Bianchi has only 3 Bianchi bikes in the shop, and 2 are closeouts from last year. It's the corporate machine, stock what moves and special order the rest.

Big company, easy target. Same reason the movie "Super Size Me" focused on McDonald's-they're the biggest.

I baught my 5000 last year cause of lance, i wanted a good comfortable(carbon) competetive bike without thinking to much and figured "if it's good enough for lance". I wasn't dissapointed, the bike was pretty solid, it was used and a 04 model, but it did the job until i got hit by a car. Trek's marketing worked, i felt alot safer purchasing a well known bike, rather then doing weeks of research and trying to find something cheaper that would have also sufficed

My cannondale r1000 has bontrager x-lite aero wheels, i consider them an upgrade over ksyrium elite's, and i wanted to give them a try because i already had ksyrium elite's on my synapse. Oh, and the bonty's came with the powertap :P

The higher end bontrager stuff is pretty nice, especially since the OLCV carbon stuff has leaked over from trek. The bontrager's carbon wheel's are very nice, and seem like they're be more durable then a set of zipp's.

I really love my 2005 2100. It is just a very nice bike. I like the way it rides and looks.

+1 Best quote I've heard in a while! :D

For what its worth, and from a marketing point of view, the name "Trek" was a really bad choice. I know a couple of people who would never buy the bike just because they don't want that particular word all over thier expensive new bike. Yes, I know thats a cosmetic thing, and you could even remove the name decals, but most buyers don't do that. I know I dislike the name too. It just conjures up backpacking or hiking or whatever. Not that thats bad at all, its just bad for a $5000 ROAD BIKE!!

Dave

I think that is partly true. When I was looking for my new bike last year, I was considering a Trek 1500 or 2100. One of the shops I went to here didn't carry Trek, but they used to. The shop owner said that he couldn't meet Trek's sales requirements, so he lost his franchise.

I got a Klein. Whether it's owned by Trek or not doesn't matter, it's still a great bike. :)

i believe it could happen to any carbon frame regardless of MFG or the process that is used.
nothing in bicycling is 100% fail -safe.

i bought a trek 5.5 madone abut 3 months ago,the more I ride the bike the more i like it

Titus specs Bontrager wheels on thier Isogrid and Exogrid road bikes.

>>Cannondales were the run-of-the-mill bike about 10 years ago. It seemed that everyone owned one, road, velodrome AND mtb. People made fun of them all the time, "Crack 'n fail" was their nickname.<<

Much like Trek, Cannondale's involvement with pro bike racing (both road and MTB) has VASTLY improve their bicycle design. Ditto for Giant and Specialized. I'm a perfect example of how this has worked for these companies in the high end bike market. 10 years ago I never would have considered a bike from one of those mainstream companies. They simply weren't as good as the bikes out there from Litespeed, Merlin, Ibis, etc. I bought an Ibis Ti Road (stiill ride it daily). When it came time to get a new racing bike late last year, the main contenders were top of the line racing bikes from Trek, Specailized, Cannondale and Giant. Big change. All because those bikes now offer performance (if not bling) comparable with bikes like Serotta. In the case of my Cannondale Six12 (the bike I purchased) for $4,000, not $6,000. And a BETTER racing bike than my Ibis Ti road (Ibis is somewhat more comfy but the Cdale climbs/accellerates better and is also fine for 3-5 hour rides).

And if the Bike Weenie Snob Patrol doesn't like it. Hell, that makes it MORE attractive to me. Half those jerks have pot bellies and couldn't hang on the rides I regularly frequent, so who cares? 'Crack n' Fail'? So what? My LBS tells me that Cannondale is the BEST warranty company in the business. In fact they already replaced my six month old Six13 frame no questions asked over a finish issue that was so minor that I can't imagine what a pain in the ass that might have been with Serotta or Seven. So far my Cannondale ownership experience has been stellar (2nd Cdale, my 'rain bike' is a 1998 CAAD3).

Nothing is more emblematic of the immaturity and foggy thinking of a significant portion of the bicycle community than Trek bashing. Here's a good comparison: I don't particularly care for American cars. I've driven European and Japanese cars for 30 years. But why would I root against GM's success? That's crazy. What's good for GM is good for America. Ditto for Trek. And I would hope both companies come up with such a great product that even I wind up jonzing for it some day. In the meantime I'm not about to say negative things about companies that do so many good things for Americans.

people dislike trek for the same reason people dislike microsoft. they both provide a tool to a job, and they both are very capable of doing it.

now that I've lit the fire, i'm going to step back for a minute :)

-j

Who cares anymore?? Obviously the company was good enough and built a decent enough bike for the most finicky, equipment obsessed, successful Tour rider in history. So, it was good enough for me as well. And some Americans still find pride in purchasing something made in the USA, and it doesn't hurt that they put just as much if not more $$ from their budget into R&D than any other bike company. But it still comes down to a personal choice, you are the one that buys the bike, you are the one that makes the decision, so, they are the leading manufactor in the US right now and have been for a long time, they must be doing something right. Obviously it didn't hurt to have that Texas dude riding the bike for the past 7 years either. The thing I look at most is when I see a bunch of people riding Treks, including me, I think, it's a bunch of people cycling, who cares what they are on, but they are growing the sport, and if choosing a certain bike over another did that, great. All these Treks sold over the past few years = all these new people in the sport, and that's a good thing. Just ride......

If you had to deal with them from a business perspective you'd know how correct that was. See if any of the letters to the editor are posted on Bicycle Retailer's site. There's been some good ones recently.
Back in the day, our shop carried Fisher but not Trek (as this was the rule at the time, you couldn't do both). Another shop not far from us carried Trek and suddenly had Fisher. We called Trek up to see what was going on and if we could now get Trek. They told us no, we were to close to that other dealer. Brilliant.
As Snicklefritz mentioned, they place some pretty good demands on dealers, and in large markets, have been known to open a concept store right in one of their dealer's back yards if said dealer doesn't meet their demands (this would be the subject matter on Bicycle Retailer).

For years Trek was great at playing the game of having the frames manufactured overseas and shipping them here, assembling and painting them, and calling them made in the USA. I was never a fan of this practice. There's hardly any American manufacturing with Trek these days. The rep in our area was saying the 2100 (and family) are now overseas, leaving the OCLV series the only ones made in the US. I haven't confirmed this but figure that if the rep is saying it, he knows what's what.

On a personal level, I find the marketing of OCLV to be somewhat disingenuous. Everyone has some sort of process wherein they try to minimize the voids in their lay-up. What's funny to me is that through their marketing, many people seem to believe that Trek's carbon fiber is entirely different than that other manufactures are using, when the reality is that their CF is the same stuff used by one of the more popular suppliers in the golf industry. Also, I don't really care for the ride of their carbon bikes, nor their full-sus mountain bikes. All personal preference and everyone has different needs/inclinations, but they're not for me.

Wow, that got to be rather long. In spite of what I've said, I can't believe there are idiots bashing Trek for Hincappie's crash. I'm not a Trek fan, but I'm not about to take pleasure in his crash. One of the best American riders got hurt when in prime position to win Paris-Roubaix. There's no good in that, especially when you consider the impact this could have on his season.

I have no special dislike for Trek, I own a post trek Klein and I respect what they did with LA as it seems like they backed him at a time when no one else would touch him with a bargepole.

But as a casual observer, I would say that they are too conservative as a company. They seem to churn out the same designs every year with a slightly different paint job, which seems a little lazy and half @rsed to me. Even more so with their MTB range. I think that Specialized, Giant and Cannondale have been more innovative, Specialized in particular seem to come up with lots of exciting new product every year, both with bikes and accessories.

Lastly, Gary Fisher and Klein have withered and died under Trek. Klein was bought to become their boutique brand but they're off the map now as a relevant and contemporary bike brand, same with Gary Fisher. Put it this way, if someone like Specialized or Cannondale did a simultaneous 2007 product launch, most of us would go to their website to have a look. Who'd bother with Klein? It'd be the Quantum and Attitude from the previous year with a different paint job and thats about it.

Still, if I was in the market for a bike and they had something that was outstanding, then I'd sure go for it.

I don't know, probably for the same reason everyone bashed Schwinn back in the day. I don't really give a crap, but I've liked all the Treks I've ever owned. The real enemy is WalMart bikes. ;)

Word.

Burn the Wal-Mart bikes! :)

well this post is completely wrong.

Trek became the biggest, despite the name. I hope you aren't in marketing
because with your ideas, companies might tank.


I mean...really think about what you said...it is your opinion. The masses
have voted by buying more Trek bikes/margins than any other brand before
Giant took over in the last 2 years.


sheesh

I've also heard this - Trek sets minimum yearly purchase quotas for dealers, and you need to carry a full range of accessories, and also sell a fairly full selection of their bike range. (Eg: you can't just buy a couple of $400 cruisers, and a bunch of 5000s, 5.2 and 5.9). They have sales presentation plans set up with minimum square footage quotas.

My last mountain bike was a Gary Fisher, great frame. I would like to own a Fisher-branded cyclocross bike... If I could get a Lemond Poprad for a good price I might consider getting it repainted and branded as a Fisher on the downtube. It would confuse Mr. Fisher if I meet him again in the future at another trade show. :D

I agree with Klein (I've never seen a Klein out riding around), but come over to north america and observe the popularity of Fisher mountain bikes! Particularly on the west coast they're quite common. Probably more common than cannondales with the lefty-type fork, and other major brands. Ask any MTB rider in BC their opinion of Fisher frames...

Is Fisher seen as more of a uncommon boutique brand in the UK? Shops in WA state sell the full range from $350-$3000.

Pedalforce is offering the Bontrager Race / Race Lite / Race X Lite wheels with their QS2 and ZX3 build kits. I've seen Bontrager wheels for sale in distributors' catalogs before, but they were never very price competitive with some other brands.