Another e-bike was in the news last week. It’s from VeloSolex and it was on display at the Brussels Motor Show.
Photo: Reuters Pictures via Daylife.
We’re enthusiastic about motor-assisted bikes and ride one weekly to deliver goods, errands, and just riding around, but it’s not our primary bike.
... Read more »
Following up on our visit earlier this year to Trek during TrekWorld, Mike Pfaltzgraff will take your questions starting tonight and tomorrow. Mike is the man at Trek, designing all the graphics for the Team Bikes, Lance’s specialty bikes, the Team Shack bike, and more.
Pretty much, if you’ve seen something cool from Trek Bikes in the past 3 years, it involved Mike’s artwork. Like this Madone.
... Read more »Trek uploaded photos of the Team Radio Shack Madone to Facebook today.
That’s a custom-painted 2010 Madone with Bontrager wheels and gear. Featuring integrated DuoTrap sensors a Bontrager’s Node computer.
During our trip to TrekWorld earlier this year we saw those frames being built and here’s a post on the wheels. They’re designed by Hed.
That paint scheme is reminiscent of the Stages collection and we wish Team Radio Shack’s kit looked that good.
More photos on Flickr. Also see:
Chris Clinton, Bontrager Hard Goods Brand Manager, shows us updated Bontrager wheels. New hubs, skewers, and aerodyanmics without twin-paired spokes. Like Hed's C2 platform, Bontrager has increased the width of the rim and no longer needs the twin-pair. Twin-pair was problematic for several reasons and this change will undoubtedly rekindle decades-old debates about Rolf Wheels, spoke patterns, and tension. We heard, but do not have it confirmed, that Shimano and Zip have also increased rim width in their new wheels.
Watch now on YouTube or download and sync to iTunes, your iPod, iPhone. Subscribe to the Huggacast Feed for more episodes.
iPhone users can download and watch now and access our Huggacasts via the iTunes Store on a Wi-Fi or cellular network.
Eric Bjorling, Trek's Lifestyle Marketing Guy, shows us the new District Carbon. Prototypes of this bike had been seen at Sea Otter and in Lance's twitterstream. It's a belt-drive, all carbon, free/fixed urban bike. Eccentric dropouts accomodate the belt. MSRP $3,359.00.
Watch now on YouTube or download and sync to iTunes, your iPod, iPhone. Subscribe to the Huggacast Feed for more episodes.
iPhone users can download and watch now and access our Huggacasts via the iTunes Store on a Wi-Fi or cellular network.
Most people don't think of bikes from the innards of Trek's Madison mothership as being handmade, but this bike, an all-carbon single-speed called the District Carbon is made by hand, and pardon me if I'm a bit teary-eyed, it's effin gorgeous.
Too gorgeous for me perhaps, with the beautiful belt drive system and the FSA cranks, this bike screams--no, this bike whispers style. I, however, whisper heathen.
For just over $3000 you can pick up this Madone-based single-speed and ride it to your corner office at AIG, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Madoff Investments, Huron Consulting, Burger King.
One of the things that surprised me when looking through images from TrekWorld was this beautiful Mixte frame. (A mixte is a drop-tube bike with standover. They're often called "women's frames" but that's a sexist generalization that comes from the history of bicycles and doesn't related to modern riding.)
The Trek Belleville is a sophisticated looking bike, with a killer paint job and some smart touches. This is a bike that's part of an overall trend to make commuting and errand bikes actually useful. To wit: the pannier racks actually allow for easy-on-easy-off connection of panniers, something that seems to be a commonly difficult process on many power commuter bikes. This bike reminds me of the steel-framed Raleigh "woman's frame" bike I rode when I got into cycling.
Like that Raleigh, this bike is driven by a three speed Nexus hub (where my Raleigh was a Sturmey-Archer), which provides just enough gear range for your average flat cities. (Riders in San Francisco should probably look to other models, unless your entire commute is down Market.)
Trek is using the Belleville and other models to make a statement, they're trying to step away from being thought of as a mass-manufacturer of hybrids and road bikes and instead be seen as an innovator.
While I don't think it's a great design choice, the zip-tie assembled saddle is designed to allow the seat to be recycled after it's worn out. While it's a neat idea, I'm not sure I want a saddle that can be disassembled with a pair of scissors.
But I don't think the design is the point, so much as the fact that someone in industrial design thought up a more environmentally-friendly saddle and someone in accounting signed off on the idea. It's small touches like this that will someday lead to a greener world. And it's the way that Trek shows people that they're thinking more like Saturn than GM.
Thinking of the bike as a whole is a rather new idea in the industry, and Trek worked with Alchemy to design recycled rubber bags that mount to the pannier racks on the bike.
At $659 the bike won't break the bank, which is good because an economy in which we're running out of fuel and jobs at the same rate needs a solid price point for a commuting/errand bike like this.
You can meet Trek's Eric Bjorling as he introduces the bike in this Huggacast
Trek's Industrial Designers -- Hans Eckholm and David Bloom -- show us a Madone prototype and Fisher Cronos. MSRP is Cronus $2629.99, Cronus Pro $3569.99, Cronus Ultimate $6299.99.
Watch now on YouTube or download and sync to iTunes, your iPod, iPhone. Subscribe to the Huggacast Feed for more episodes.
iPhone users can download and watch now and access our Huggacasts via the iTunes Store on a Wi-Fi or cellular network.
Eric Bjorling, Trek's Lifestyle Marketing Guy, introduces the Belleville and Trek's new Eco Design line.
Eco Design features low-impact steel frames and components; recycled rubber tires, and generator lights. MSRP is $659.00.
Watch now on YouTube or download and sync to iTunes, your iPod, iPhone. Subscribe to the Huggacast Feed for more episodes.
iPhone users can download and watch now and access our Huggacasts via the iTunes Store on a Wi-Fi or cellular network.
Eric Bjorling, Trek's Lifestyle Marketing Guy shows us the Valencia +, an ebike, and introduces the term, "sweat-free commuting."
MSRP for the Valencia is $2500 with Trek's version of Bionx and 350 watts of power. See our Electric Innovation post for more on Trek's eBikes and the Trek Electric Huggacast.
Watch now on YouTube or download and sync to iTunes, your iPod, iPhone. Subscribe to the Huggacast Feed for more episodes.
iPhone users can download and watch now and access our Huggacasts via the iTunes Store on a Wi-Fi or cellular network.
Rode around downtown Madison and commuted to Trek HQ in Waterloo during TrekWorld. Jessica Braun is seen in the video with us on the bike path.
Watch now on YouTube or download and sync to iTunes, your iPod, iPhone. Subscribe to the Huggacast Feed for more episodes.
iPhone users can download and watch now and access our Huggacasts via the iTunes Store on a Wi-Fi or cellular network.
Hey everybody tell Trek,"make these shoes with SPDs!" We'll wear them.
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A few weeks ago, I wrote a post challenging the industry to innovate with electric bikes. Not just power a comfort bike, but develop a performance bike. Well, Trek did that and also powered a comfort/fitness bike.
The day before the demos, Jessica Braun hinted we'd see something electric and cool. We saw three bikes actually: Phase, Bishop, and Valencia+. The Bishop is a steampunky concept while the Phase looks like a modern-art Madone with a battery pack and integrated electronics.
Taking on all Commuter Challengers, with electric power.
Ridden best with Tweed and leather -- so badass comes with its own shoes.
Neither of those concepts will ship, but the thinking and creativity is there. If Trek's Ride+ (electric line) does well, expect something more like the Phase, a powered Madone.
... Read more »At TrekWorld 2010 we experienced the Trek Electric.
Watch now on YouTube or download and sync to iTunes, your iPod, iPhone. Subscribe to the Huggacast Feed for more episodes.
iPhone users can download and watch now and access our Huggacasts via the iTunes Store on a Wi-Fi or cellular network.
With over thirty thousands items in their catalog, there's much product to see at TrekWorld and we saw a lot of it. In this post, I'll highlight what we thought was the best in show and relevant to our readers. We'll continue our coverage in follow-on posts, including video for our Huggacasts. As we've previously discussed in the comments, TrekWorld is a preview of the 2010 line and all of the details with pricing were not made available to us at the time.
20 years ago, Trek decided to forego other tradeshows and do their own thing. The event is mainly for Trek's dealers with media being invited to meet with product managers, the CEO, get a factory tour, ride bikes, and so on.
Joining us in Madison, Wisconsin were the traditional media, including Zap from Road Bike Action. As that hostage-style photo indicates, we attempted to coerce Zap into blogging and he wasn't having any of it, holding up the NYTimes to say, "old Media rules!" (or if I don't come back, here's the date and where I was last seen with Hugga).
At times during the event, I was whisked away by Jessica Braun to meet with Trek's Industrial Designers and talk about social media. Madison's Edge/3G network has some issues, our connection was spotty, but uploaded and live blogged as much as possible.
I also spent time riding Madison's bike paths, including commuting to Waterloo where Trek's HQ is located.
... Read more »
Bike Hugger is still taking in the sights at TrekWorld, the annual gathering for the unveiling of the Trek lineup to dealers and to media insiders.
Byron's been on the ground there for days, and he's rounded up product managers and product and wanted to share some thoughts about the event. (Of course he's too darned busy shooting iPhone video to YouTube like this quick hello from product designers to write, but will be reporting back when he's recovered from the wild partying that Madison Wisconsin is known for).
Byron's noting that the city itself is great--small town Americana combined with the big business of Trek. And speaking of Americana, both Trek and SRAM seem to be the biggest players when it comes to bike advocacy--something near and dear to our hearts here. Trek's president John Burke has lead the charge for change with millions given to advocacy (that explains the lead-off photo of congressman James Oberstar and John Burke having a meeting) and SRAM has committed $10M, despite the seeming lack of enthusiasm from the rest of the industry.
The group of assembled journalists got to watch a Madone being built--the process is all done by hand (and machine obviously but no big ol' robots here) and it's an amazing job. We're suggesting they show off their bikes at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show.
Interestingly, LeMond's brand has been completely expunged from the Trek campus, it's like he never had a presence there. After this recent Bicycling article on him, we're not surprised by that. Here's a guy who never quite got the saying "you can catch more flies with honey than you can by pissing off everyone who is generating your revenue by selling your bikes."
Trek's been showing off the new Super Fly which is gorgeous and we'll be talking about that shortly.
Spotted at the demo tents -- we requested Time pedals, circa 2007. Wondered if you could stump the mechanic with an obscure pedal request like a Diadora. Or the non-mud clearing, didn't work well at all, 1st gen-SPDs for your shitty shoes.
Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.
Bike Hugger is on the scene at TrekWorld 2010, the company's big roll-out of new products for press and dealers, and it's been a great showcase of their products, like the District Carbon, a single-speed belt-driven carbon-fiber drop-bar bike (that's a lot of hyphenated words right there) that's a knockout.
And check this out, it's an ANT+ Sport transmitter integrated into a chainstay, perfect for the Garmin or Powertap user. Intelligent combinations of technology like this really get me worked up.
I'm not as big on electric assist bikes, but they are an important component of a more green transportation future, and Trek's Valencia is a nice mix of form and function.
Of course there are a ton of bikes in the Trekworld display (Trek even makes bikes for some racing teams, we hear, though we're not sure you've heard of them, they're from Kazakhstan) and we're featuring the best of them on our Flickr page, and on Twitter @bikehugger.
We're at Trek World 2010 blogging live from the demos and later meeting with the design team. The focus for us is on their Pavement line with attention to the new eco_design, Ride+ (electic assist), and concept bikes.
We're also talking with Trek about social media and sharing input from our readers.
What are your questions for their designers, engineers, and product managers? We're here and they're listening. They had lots of questions for us at dinner last night and we're excited to show camera phone photos of The Bishop steampunk bike. Also kept trying to scare us with The Vortex of Terror -- looks more the vortex of puketo us . . .
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