I've heard so much bad stuff about Bontrager components over the road cycling forum. Can someone give an honest analysis of Bontrager's stuff? Is it all sub-par compared with Shimano and Campy? And why, then, has Trek (and its sub-brands) gotten involved with the company and put the components on even some really high end bikes (Madone 5.5, 6.9, a bunch of Lemonds, etc)?

THanks

I thought Bontrager was a sub-brand of Trek.

Pretty much. Bontrager is basically a division of Trek.

It's the same exact thing as Specialized, or any other bike company putting self-branded parts onto their machines.

I'm using a bontrager seatpost on my Cinelli. Because it's cheap and it has a good adjustment mech (basically a Thomson copy).

And it doubles as a bottle opener. I'm not joking.

There is nothing wrong with Bontrager components. Most of their components are top notch. Some components don't measure up for one reason or another - with "preference" usually being the reason. Their bars and wheels are as good as anything out there and, probably better than most. Oddly enough, there are people who actually shun a product because of it's successful pedigree. The "Trek" name is a good example of this.

I have bontrager cranks, plating after 100 mile and 6 months is almost gone. Sucks big time.
Wheel sets however are nice.

run bontrager carbon cranks on one bike and their drop bars,zero problems

You can blame SRAM for this one.

High end stuff is very good. Great warranty, decent value. Low end stuff is just imported like everyone else.

In older reviews I have read that their low end wheels used to fail. I had Race on my 2006 Trek and they were fine, as were all the other Bontrager parts.

so is the high end stuff...

That's what your warranty is for! Trek cheerfully replaced all the cranks that had issues. If yours came on a bike or from a dealer, they'll warranty it. Simple as that.

Not all! The X-Lite and XXX-Lite rims are made in the US. The wheels are built and hand finished in Waterloo as well.

They probably have a high end product like everyone else but if I based it on my trek I'd never use them. I seem to break spokes every ride. I only ride road at the moment so it's not being abused. I weigh in the 200 range so I don't think it's that. But I've come back with as many as 4 spokes broken for no reason then 3 other rides I've had at least one on each wheel.

I love using Bonty components, but the only thing i'm still unsure of are their wheelsets. I've seen far too many race and race lite wheelsets fail for absolutely no reason. Whether it be a crack or a spoke ripping through the rim. Also, if anyone here ever gets a set of the new Bonty Race Lites, have your LBS take a tensionometer to it and make sure it's safe to ride. My LBS got about 10 sets of the new Race Lites, and all of them had horrendous tensions. Mine had about 6 spokes with a tension of lower than 40.

That crank is rebadged more times then bottled water, thank you SRAM, and Truvativ.

They make some nice quality stuff but sometimes, the prices are too high. The XXX-lite wheels are pretty sweet, but for 2,000, you can get much lighter wheels for the same price.

But not as durable.

Bontrager carbon wheels are not the lightest on the market, but they perform at a very high level.

I'd use those over 202s any day of the week on anything but the smoothest roads.

I've run race lite wheels, currently x lites, carbon x lite seat post, race lite bar, and x lite stem, no problems whatsoever, plenty of mileage on them, and I feel price wise these components are competitive with the other brands, along with weight and performance.

The bottom line here is that a bunch of people on this forum just hate Trek for one reason or another, most of the reasons too are absurd, so anything associated with Trek, they hate that too. No biggie.

Bontrager has some great components, and some that aren't nearly as good. The sad part is you'll easily find more people who hate Bontrager because it is associated with Trek, it's associated with Lance Armstrong, it's associated with America, it's used by so many people that there has to be some who have problems with them just from sheer numbers of use, and on and on.

Closer to the real truth is that people like to "hate" on Bontrager, mainly because of those reasons above. Bontrager normally doesn't fail any sooner or later than any other brand. They just tend to soak up all of the bad incidences and that comes out publicly while all of those satisfied with Bontrager stay silent.

If something on a Shimano and Bontrager equiped Trek fails, then it's the worst product ever created and is a junk brand. If something on a Campy equiped Colnago fails, then it must be some freak accident because they are completely superior to all other brands.

It's just the way it goes. Rest assured that Bontrager has some great components out there and thousands of people are riding bikes with said components with no problems and enjoying it. I'm one of them.

Well said.

I've used Bontrager stuff from day one.... Race, Race Lite, Race X Lite wheels, Race X Lite and Race XXX Lite stems, Race X Lite seat posts and whatever else. The new Bontrager saddles (2008 spec Race X Lite Pro and Race Lite) are actually pretty comfortable and lighter than previous models.

After 20,000 miles of riding Bontrager stuff, I don't have any complaints!

Same problem here with a new Madone 5.5. I had a spoke go completely wobbly on me. The LBS fixed that spoke, but didn't check all the others, so naturally I had another one go "prong" a few days later.

Their wheels are pretty nice, I know people have their opinions on the paired spokes, but they seem pretty solid to me. The '08 bars and stems are much improved also.

My experience has been mixed. Crank performs ok, but I don't like the look, bars and stem seem fins. My original seatpost was waaay too small (26.3 mm or somewhere around there for a 27.2 seat tube) and had to be replaced by my LBS after about a month of aggravation. The replacement seems to stay fine, buy I've put a beer can shim in to be safe.

The wheelset, (RaceLite) started making wierd noises the first year on the bike, and took several truings to get things quiet again.

I beleive Trek bought Bontrager around 2000 & uses them as their component supplier. I thought their basic tandem spoke wheels are the original Rolf wheels. I thought their seatpost with the clyinder tilt adjustment is novel, but I like a 2 bolt better.

John Hawrylak
Woodstown NJ