club racing - most common bike brands
 

For those of you that do club rides and racing: which bikes seem to be the most common bike brand you see? Are there bikes you see a lot at club rides, but different at races? Or are they generally the same brands showing up at races? Is carbon more common now vs aluminum or steel? Is there any new racer that ever showed up with what was considered a subpar brand and components that just smoked on the course?

Where I live on club rides I see a pretty wide variety of bikes but if I had to name some popular brands I'd say Trek, Lemond and Specialized are what I see. Giant may be a bit under-represented based on market share.

from my experience i've noticed that it's not club specific, but LBS and what they carry specific.

without trying to light a flame, i would imagine that Treks have to be the most common racing bike amongst the recent converts to racing/riding.

Our club is overrun with Cannondales.

Mark

At races the variety is huge but it seems like Trek and Giant are the most popular. Among the riders in the group ride I do, Trek is by far the most popular with about 1/3 of the riders on Trek, a couple Colnagos, Specializeds, a Felt, Look, and Cervelo thrown in.

I haven't ever seen anyone on a "sub par" bike that blew away the field, but there are certainly plenty of riders on 105 equiped bikes or "online" brands that do just fine. What is more noticeable are the guys that come out and do a Cat 4/5 race with an expensive bike and high end carbon wheels and get dropped quickly.

A lot of treks and specialized on our club rides.

I think botto's got a point - it's mostly what the LBS' carry. The big brands around Boston seem to be Trek, Spec, LeMond, and C'dales. The bigger shops are Landry's, Wheelworks, and Cycleloft - and guess what they carry a lot of? This seem to extend to the customs as well - Seven and IF you see a lot of, but not as much Moots or Serotta.

Roger that on whatever the LBS carries. The best roadie LBS in this area has Orbea & Specialized, so there are a lot of those brands at our rides.

There used to be a Serotta dealer here and now there is an IFab dealer, so there are some of those, as well.

And one guy who has a stable of high-end bikes. Spectrum, Coppi, Bianchi, Columbine and the like. Must be tough when you have to decide which one to ride each morning.

My club rides are overrun with Treks and Spanish Treks, and big surprise, that's what our sponsoring shop sells.

What's a Spanish Trek?

>>Is there any new racer that ever showed up with what was considered a subpar brand and components that just smoked on the course?<<

The 20 year old kid that shows up on a 20 year old 35lb. rusty Raleigh who smokes the field @ a USCF Cat 3/4 race is such a repeated story in the annals of pro cycling legend that it's nearly cliche'.

Nearly. Still a panic when it actually happens. See the Floyd Landis Argyle Socks story.

Next question.

I'm not sure, but it's pronounced 'Trek'.

Pretty diverse field at the weekly hammerfest here. On a given Saturday the most represented mark is probably Specialized, followed by Bianchi, and Trek. Some weeks, you might see more Steve Rexes than Treks, though one of them is being ridden by Steve himself.

Trek, Cannondale, Litespeed, Giant, and recently Specialized. That covers about 90% of the bikes in our club rides. There are a couple of Douglases, a Merlin, a Colnago, a Serotta, a Klein, a few Lemonds, and a John Howard (Dave Moulton).

I thought Orbeas were Spanish Treks.

Lots of Treks everywhere. Club rides no different.

Orbea

Orbea

I'll be racing my newly built Scattante next year, But the only part visible to other riders will be my back tire... from a distance.

I don't think I've ever seen a Lightspeed or Ti bike in general in a 1/2 race around here.

Bianchi, Trek, Specialized are the top 3. Then Cannondale, which are on the rise, and a lot of Waterford's (Team MACK...ewww). Saw some Orbea's with Team Clifbar Midwest, but they were the only team, or racers in general, who rode them that I saw.

I've also never seen a Colnago or Pinarello, with the exception of when Navigators and their Colnago bikes were around these parts for the Elk Grove and Downers Grove races. Too high priced to race, unless you get them for free or have a large disposable income. Most of the college kids and recent graduates around here aren't floating in cash so they ride what they're given. Not sure what the 30+ 1/2 guys ride as their training bikes, if they have one, though.

I guess what wins on sunday sells on monday holds true for bike racing. Lots of treks/specialized around here but the races tend to be a mix of everything:
Lightspeed
della santa
fuji
scott
cdale
etc. etc.

A guess:
Giant
Specialized
Trek
Cannondale
LeMond
in that order.

Then there's the odd Fuji, Felt, Jamis, or Orbea.

I've only seen a couple of Bianchi's (mine being one of them).

<hijack> Any idea what the wait is like for a Della Santa, jrennie? <hijack over>

In Albuquerque;
Trek
Specialized
Orbea
Cervelo
Other

In my club:

Trek
Lemond
Cannondale
Serotta
Specialized
Fuji
Giant

Those make up 90% of my local club. Trek is about 30% of the club (but our LBS is a longtime Trek dealer and a sponsor of the club). Cannondale and Lemond are probably tied for second.

The shop our club is supported by is the largest distributor of Look frames in the US so... I night have a skewed view of thaings.