strange agent

this is the the first official info i have seen on trek's track bike besides the pics from the trade shows a little while ago. thought i'd post it here. i apologize if this has been covered before.

https://www.trekbike.co.uk/2006/?sec=...geID=0&ID=307#

MKRG

Something just doesn't look right.

invicta

I was just thinking the same thing....seems to me its a the cockpit and high front end coupled with the fugly hydroformed tubes.

hyperRevue

The bars look super tiny.

mattface 

yeah from a purely aesthetic viepoint the whole front end is weird lookin and fugly. Dropping the stem down to the headset, and using a more traditional track bar would help, but the way the tubes join at the head tube also looks funny. And the head tube and seat tube angles look way slack for a track bike.

seely

Does anyone else think that looks closer to road geometry than track? Maybe its just a trick on the eyes with that funky tubing.

2speedfiend

The geometry charts shows 74-75 degree angles depending on size. All the other numbers say "Track".

pitboss

Gross!
Taiwan just vomited, and Trek is selling it!

wangster

Lets not get fugly and poorly built mixed up. That thing being fugly as sh*t doesn't mean it's built like sh*t. But yeah... looks like Trek really want in on the track trend and had some 'designer' pull this out of his ass and threw it into production.

MLPROJECT

yeah that **** is nassy

flythebike

Trek has proven itself in the Tour. They are careful with their designs. Their high-end bikes are mande in the US. I'm sure it would do well enough in a velodrome.

you

Riders have proven themselves in the tour, the bikes they rode had little to do with it. I also thought Trek moved all production to Taiwan. Weren't they the first company to do so?

noisebeam

At least its nice that it comes with a more flexible (for street use) 49t chainring instead of the typical 48t that comes with most other street oriented stock fixed gears.

Al

wangster

trek still produces the highend bike in the US.

zerobug

The aluminum bikes... the carbon frames are still made in the US.


I always thought Trek producing a track bike would be the equivilant to your favorite indie band being played on MTV....

Fugazi Dave

IMO, that would bike be hot under the following conditions:

• No decals
• Matte black
• Bullhorns
• SLR-type saddle
• Different wheels

Edit: Let's not turn this into a thread about how omg trek suxorz, etc. Please?

jim-bob

Well, sure, but how many bikes do you see that are cuban-made these days?

eyefloater

... and so began the great "BF Red Scare" of 2005 ...

Fugazi Dave

As for coasting, I blame communism.

mattface 

Of course it's not. Trek has never made bikes in France, and I'm sure they're not about to start now just to please YOU!

carleton

Yeah, god forbid someone from buying a bike that looks different from the cookie cutter bikes out there...even the $2,000+ ones.

The same thing is happening in BMX. All of the bikes look exactly alike. Standard Bykes made the prototype with the STA and everybody with $10,000 and a chip on their shoulder started a bike company and copied it.

I encourage the differences. Plus, don't forget that Trek has probably spent more $$$ than most everyone else in the game on R&D for cycling in general.

This bike might actually be nice.

OneTinSloth

there aren't too many ways to make a BMX bike that holds up. it's a simple design template, the things that differentiate company A's bike from company B's bike might be tubing diameters, tubing wall thickness, head tube/seat tube angles, chainstay length, where the seat stays are attached to the seat tube, how the stays are attached to the front triangle (wishbone, or not), bent stays, straight stays, where/how they're bent, the list goes on and on. have you even taken a good, hard look at a bmx bike and thought about how much goes into making one?

and yes, it's true, a lot of companies out there took the STA and copied it and sold it under their name, so what? it worked, not for everyone, not for me, but it worked, and not everyone wanted to shell out $350 for a standard frame when they could pay up to $100 less and get an S&M.

for a different looking bike, construction-wise, i would point you to the T-1 barcode, the Solid Killing Machine, and my kink cielencki doesn't look, or ride at all like an STA. i just found out that standard doesn't even make the STA anymore, i never really liked that bike, but it still makes me sad inside...

as far as R&D budgets, i think specialized, cannondale, shimano, SRAM, and a good deal of other companies out there spend at least the same amount that trek does. any of the big companies that are out there innovating have to spend the big dollars to come up with new product, and new ways to sell it.

jacobs

I personally think that thing looks way nicer then any of the other fixed-gear offerings from a major. Looks like it would be a fast ride to me.

OneTinSloth

this geometry chart? that 74 degree head tube is steeper than the 71.5 degree head tube angle on the trek 1400, a similarly priced road bike. both measurements are taken from 52cm bikes. this bike does not have the same geometry as the trek road bikes, overall, it's shorter and steeper. show that geometry chart to someone who actually rides and races on the track, and i bet they'd dig it.

as far as aesthetics go, i kinda like it. if it were mine, i'd put a selle italia flite saddle on it, a bar and stem that fit me (probably a 90mm, and a 40cm road bar with a bend that fits my hands, or perhaps the shallow drop nitto tracks, or hell, the nitto anatomic road bar) and call it a day.

queerpunk

the "cockpit," as it were, just looks awfully short and cramped in that picture. that's what throws me off.

other than that, whatever.