Curses.

How was the 400? I'm actually considering buying an old 1985 Trek 400 and restoring it up with a pair of old bar-ends and such. This guy wants to sell it to me for $175; it looks like it's in great condition. Did you like the frame on it?

Good answer! But in the spirit of the analogy, you would be scoffing at the high-end botique bike that really performed no better than the Trek, which is kind of the reverse of what you initially proposed.

The problem with the car analogy is that with cars, it's the car that matters, and while the driver makes a huge difference, he's not going to make a Taurus accelerate like a Ferrari. But on a bike, the rider can definitely make the Trek go like the botique bike.

I think anyone that owns a Trek and would put it in their sig is a total dumba55. Yes, A total dumba55!

That's right! Stay focused, people.

What does a $10k Trek have that an $8k full custom _________ doesn't?

If you said more weight and easy to find off the shelf parts, you would be correct.

in the 1913 TDF Eugene Christophe broke a fork blade during a descent. now i'm not sure what bike he was riding, but i know it wasn't a trek. stuff breaks. it happens. bianchis break. colnagos, cannondales... some $5000.00 machines suffer the exact same fate as the run of the mill GMC denali.

BTW, for those that don't know the story, Christophe hiked the bike to a local blacksmith and WELDED HIS FORK BACK TOGETHER HIMSELF to finish the race.

i'm sure George would have done the same, if aluminum was as easily welded as steel.


Now, to address the die-hard trek bashers: in a couple of years, the chances are very good that you'll be bashing cervelos or specializeds with the same self-righteous fervor that you currently reserve only for trek. don't worry, though... your ramblings will be just as inconsequential then as they are now.

and in case you were wondering, i have never thrown a leg over a trek.

Why does it matter to you that much? You aren't going to buy one. But some people do, and I bet they love their bike just as much as you love yours. It's not up to you to dictate other people's purchases, and if they want a $10,000 Trek, let them have a $10,000 Trek. Maybe they don't want an $8k full custom _________ .

Why do you care?

I'd much rather see some rich dude out on his $10k Trek on a Sunday morning than cruising down the freeway in his Mercedes.

i love my Trek. that i bought 16 years ago. so when i decided last year to buy a road bike, did i buy a Trek? nope, i purchased a Bianchi. Taiwan-welded steel, baby! dare to be different!

i love riding the Trek, though - toodling on bike paths and around town, i get "isn't that what Lance rides?" questions from the uninitiated walkers and folks on cruisers. sure, it's exactly what Lance rides.

and that, i think, is what makes Trek such a target. it's the only brand recogniseable to the uneducated proles that clog our riding space, which pisses off those of us who are so much better than them because we're real cyclists.

it would be nice if, instead of bashing the brand, more cyclists used the brand as a touchstone to spread awareness of the sport. sure, they aren't perfect bikes and are often overpriced - but what industry doesn't have one or more companies that fill that niche?

My personal favorite was the 'how do you shift this ten speed stuff?' thread. I was thinking with your right wrist, but that's so close to jerking off you'd think they would know THAT already.

Go for it. I really liked the bike a lot.

Trek is going the way of Huffy and many others.

Uhh... yeah.?

Heheheheh. Your name certainly fits, my friend.

Bought by a bowling ball manufacturer?

I'm not following.

I saw the fallout of the Huffy plant closure in OH. I can assure you it would be sad to see that in WI.

Like any elitist niche...we complain when what we do is unpopular because people just don't understand how "cool" it is...then we complain when people start to figure it out.

I hope Trek sells a bike to every American in the country so that maybe our sport will become popular enough to bring in enough money to get it on TV regularly, foster Engineering and Manufacturing support to bring out better products quicker, and provide many options for local racing, clubs, group rides, etc.

I also hope that Trek charges "too much" <first tell me how it can be too much when its a free market and there are plenty of alternatives and no one holds a gun to peoples heads to buy it...it's called value-pricing people...on an income statement it is listed as "Goodwill"> so that "real" cyclists can continue to afford to buy larger amounts of better equipment to help ensure they'll never get dropped by a fake Trek owning cyclist....

Sorry...someone P'd in my wheaties this morning....

Why do I have a Trek? There are 3 bicycle shops in Bloomington, each only carrying 1 - maybe 2 brands. For a sub-$700 road bike (my first road bike), my options were Trek 1000, LeMonde Etape, Specialized Allez Triple, or Giant OCR3. I definitely wanted to buy local, because I've never gone through the process of fitting myself, and wouldn't buy a bike until I've ridden and liked it. Well, the Specialized and Giant were sold out for the year (58-60cm), so my only choices were LeMond or Trek. I liked the Trek better.

Yeah, I wish I had more options; but I don't feel like I got screwed either; it's fun to ride, and has held up very well so far. That said, I'm building up my first steel roadie from garbage can components, we'll see how it turns out.

Nyah, silly racer, Treks are for kids! (to the tune of the old Trix breakfast cereal ad, "Nyah, silly rabbit, Trix are for kids")

where else could they be then ? under the butt of 7 consecutive TDF wins ?

yeah, I see your point. Trek sucks and only dominated for 7 years straight.

they could do weaaaaay better with another name...like maybe ohh.I dunno...'davesbikes' or something...

+1

My 5200 is my 4th Trek. It cost $2,500 which is just under what I care to spend on a bike - I can't see spending over $3,000 for a bike. What does it do better than my '93 Trek 2100? Pretty much everything. It's far more comfortable, much better components all around, stiffer, lighter, and handles well.

Oh and Cypress, this may be the one thing we disagree on.....Treks, other than the $6k and up models, aren't really priced much differently than MOST of their competitors. Also, factor in that the OCLV's are actually made here in the US versus many other companies, and they are actually not too bad of a deal. Would I pay $10k for the "Lance special"? Only if I won Powerball and had nothing else to spend my money on.....and even then, I don't know if I would....but that's what those bikes are geared towards. Your average Joe Schmoe isn't going to buy one. It's going to be the uber rich guy who "has to have it". Probably won't hardly ever ride it.....much like many do with exotic cars. A friend of mine has a Porsche Carrera GT (but he actually drives it). Costs $450,000. The funny part is, I can go buy a $9,000 Suzuki GSX-R750 and match him in acceleration times (although that car would probably kick the bikes' ass on a twisty race course). Is the Porsche a waste of money? Perhaps. But to some, it isn't. Hell, you can get a friggin' watercooled Volkswagen to click off a quarter mile as fast as the above Porsche with about $20-30k invested.

Carry on, kids.

Eeeeaaasssy, Tiger. I remember what it was like to be twelve. "I know you are, but what am I?"

GSXR would probably turn better by the way.

Are you saying that those 7 tours wouldn't have been won if he was riding a Cannondale?

Nope. A C-GT has 4 VERY wide contact patches and a shorter center of gravity. Ask anyone that has a fast car and a fast bike.