TrekWorld: Best of the New

• Byron
• 15 years ago
• Categories: Blog

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.

Live from Wisconsin

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.

Blogstream

• Flickr Photoset
• TrekWorld Videos
• Trekworld on Twitter
• TrekWorld Tag

I also spent time riding Madison’s bike paths, including commuting to Waterloo where Trek’s HQ is located.

Belleville Mixte

A steel mixte from Trek with eco-designed accoutrements. Suggested they include a time capsule in the top tube with a manual on how to end-of-life the bike, 15 years later. For example, cut the zip-ties on this saddle. Checking on pricing.

Valencia

An electric-powered comfort bike that’s been successful in Europe and brought to the US in 2010. Trek licensed and overhauled the Bionix system – it’s smaller, more efficient, and runs automagically. The system detects torque/speed and delivers power. There’s a wow factor to that and it also disconnects the cyclist from the drivetrain. With a full set of gears, I wondered what cadence and gear ratio I should use to maximize battery life and speed. Don’t know. Expect competitive pricing at 2K.

District Carbon

Fixed/Free drop-bar, belt-drive carbon – looks like what batman would ride in his local Critical Mass and is Trek’s response to the fixed market. It’s badass with a “want this” effect.

The dropout says it all. Lots of designer love went into this bike. Expect a 3K+ price.

Fisher Cronos

Carbon Rain Bike – seeing this bike with fenders, I realized that Trek’s designers ride Madones in the rain and weather like we do in the Pacific Northwest. They too have tried to fit race bikes with fenders. The Cronos is a full-on carbon race bike with room for a fender and a 25 tire or 28 without a fender. Thank you! Checking on pricing.

Locals

The Cronos and District Carbon are good examples of what we learned at TrekWorld. Like us, their designers are out riding bikes, experiencing what we do, and with similar thinking. They’re converting their bikes to single-speeds as well, like this Lemond (note the massive gear).

Advocacy

A challenge for Trek is to better communicate all they do and how well they do it. Their corporate ethos is to let the product speak for themselves and that results in their other efforts going widely unknown. They’re very active in advocacy, lobbying, and the politics of cycling. They also work to recycle bikes and promote bikes as transportation.