Trek invited Triathlete to Waterloo, Wisconsin this fall to tour their facility, from a triathlete’s standpoint.
By Jay Prasuhn
Complete photo gallery at the bottom of page.
Nov. 16, 2007 -- The Trek factory tour (which is available to the public and would be a worthwhile trip for any athlete traveling to Madison, Wisconsin for Ironman Wisconsin), is a learning experience for anyone curious how a great bike is made. But we wanted to look at it from the viewpoint of a triathlete. That is, how does the bike Chris Lieto ripped on in Kona come to fruition, in Waterloo, a 45-minute drive from Madison? Especially since probably 98 percent of bikes at any given race are born and raised in Asia.
Well, we got to see Chris’s bike, in its infancy. See if you can find it in the below photo. Yup, it’s right there, in the mail bin, just before it was bonded together, painted and fixed with several special one-off accoutrements. Start to finish, made in America. Trek engineers Mark Andrews, Damon Rinard and Doug Cusak let us into the Trek Advanced Concept Group room, home to the braintrust that conceptualizes the bikes, does the tunnel testing, the fatigue testing, and sends them off to be tested by guys like Lieto.
Last fall before the Hawaii Ironman, Trek’s Scott Daubert invited Triathlete to the factory for just that purpose—to see not only their 2008 product line, but to see how everything is made, right there in the midwest. While we will be assembling a piece in a coming issue of Triathlete, there were way to many amazing things we saw while there to get into a few pages.
Our visit coincided with dealer visits, so we got to see the goods on showfloor display. Lots of polish on beautiful bikes, aerobars and posts. We were like kids in a candy store.
The piece de resistance was the flagship tri bike the Lieto rode in Kona, the Equinox TTX 9.9 SSL. That SSL hearkens to superlight; Trek revamped their carbon hierarchy, color-coding it. This one has the top end red carbon, and cut weight through the frame with a new diamond cutout at the seat mast and material relief near the rear dropouts. Trek says the frame has a new fork that is 100 grams lighter than last year’s version, the new carbon makes it 47 percent stiffer at the headtube and 31 percent stiffer at the bottom bracket—both of which amaze us, since the TTX has been far and away one of the stiffest bike we’ve ever tested. Trek also says the SSL frameset is 125 grams lighter than the Cervelo P3C. Total price, kitted with Bontrager Aeolus wheels and SRAM Red? $8,249.
For those that don’t need the superlight, they can get a Shimano Dura-Ace-equipped 9.9 with OCLV black carbon (a slightly lower grade) at $5,279, or the Ultegra-kitted TTX 9.5 at $3,849.
Or… you can have a carbon TTX for just over three grand, at $3,079, in the TTX 9.0. It’s comprised of OCLV white carbon and comes out of the same mold. Same frame aerodymanics that Lieto enjoys, at less than half the price. For our money, the 9.0 is a killer deal for a tunnel-designed, Tour-proven, Kona-proven frame.
Bontrager also had a few new toys on show. The Speed Limit brakeset caught our eye; its new PowerAmp linkage provides dual-pivot stopping in a single-pivot design. At 270g per pair, they’re 45 grams lighter than Shimano Dura-Ace stoppersm capable of shaving a few grams from your spec’d ride as well. We loved the open/close cam at the top of the caliper.
The Race X Lite bullhorns, used by Levi Leipheimer in the Tour time trials, are a nice match for the Race X Lite clip-ons that spec some of the TTX bikes. The carbon clip-ons are impressive, and we won’t be surprised when other bike brands start spec’ing them on their bikes, giving Profile Design a run for their OE money.
The new Madone was a jaw-dropper; it’s sexy, with a post that serves as a cap over the frame, eliminating the need to cut the frame (and lose resale value in the process). We like that the geometry of the Madone centers around Dan Empfield’s stack and reach fit parameters (a function of height and cockpit length), and we like more that Trek is looking to re-design their TTX frames to adhere to the stack/reach principles, which make for a frame that is more geometrically balanced as it goes up or down in frame size.
We were surprised to know that bottom bracket bearings ride directly on the interior of the bottom bracket shell. Wouldn’t that destroy the frame? Trek engineer Tyler Pilger set me straight. “With our process, the carbon fiber bottom bracket shell is actually harder than the metal in bearing races,” he said. “Our tests on the shells, we run a couple million cycles, get the shells wet, throw sand and grit in there. We’ve measured it, and theres’ no wear on the shell—we end up having to stop the test because we wear out a set of bearings; they just explode and crumble. We’ll put in new bearings, a bit of grease and it’s ready to go again.”
It was during the tour through the testing room with Trek engineer Mark Andrews that we saw that test being applied; a crankset with an imbalanced load (heavy at the bottom, as if a masher was loading on it), cranked away at a bottom bracket in a basin. As the crank turned, it splashed into water and grit within the basin, bringing water and grit into the bottom bracket. It was an impressive display.
As was the load testing across the hall. Madones taking heavy loads through the seattube, TTXs torquing and twisting, making it look almost as if the frame was made of rubber. But it stood strong.
The tour finished with a ride around Madison on the Madone, which quickly ranked in our personal top three road bikes after just a couple hours in the saddle. While we prepare to get a nice tour story together for the magazine, we invite you on a photographic tour of the Trek factory, as well as a look at Trek and Bontrager’s offerings for 2008.
Trek's flagship model; the Equinox 9.9 SSL
The new Madone 6.9, upon which Alberto Contador danced to a Tour de France title.
We wanted to touch it, but she said "Don't even think about it while it's still wet."
The coolest (and most expensive) pen-holder ever: A Madone bottom bracket shell.
The new Bontrager Race X-Lite clip-ons come spec'd on some TTX modes and are available after market as well.
The new Bontrager Race Lite TT Sadle is an intriguing revamp.
Electrodes measure stresses at points on the frame during fatigue testing.
The Madone bottom bracket shell, getting pulverized by water, grit and a terrible weighted pedal stroke. It stand up to it all.
Note the rubber cable ports on the Race X-Lite clip-ons.
Trek's Advanced Concept Group protoypes tons of bars, only some of which make the cut.
A TTX takes a beating through the bottom bracket shell.
