jaxgtr

I know when I was looking at the Domane SL, one of he hang ups that was delaying shipping are tires. 32's are\were in short supply as they are coming on many bikes these days.

PDKL45

Everyone's making the point about the current supply issues due to the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, when you're buying a new bike, you also have to think of the time of year.

New bikes are released in the middle of the year, sometimes as early as April and May, so that 2022 model year bikes are due in 5-6 months from now. The pattern holds true for the most part, and although some companies are going to a January release schedule. Trek isn't with them just yet IIRC.

Thus, you should plan to buy a new bike in the middle of the year. By late summer, early Autumn, some brands are already getting low in stock on various frame sizes of various models and by early-mid January some are sold out. And that's in a normal year, without a pandemic-driven buying spree. Shop around and you'll see that some shops have the odd 2018 or 2020 model still in stock, after not having sold, but people don't seem to understand sometimes that they can't just order that bike in a larger or smaller frame size in that exact color, that will look exactly the same, because all of those are long sold and they're looking at unsold stock.

So for now, I'd sit tight, order a Trek, maybe make a down payment to secure the bike and to demonstrate commitment to buying, and then wait. If I was 100% sold on a Trek. Otherwise, I'd look around for something else.

sincos

Yeah, well, that's what happens when you tell them where their money's really coming from and they don't want to hear it.

Camilo

Do you think that Trek is the only brand worth considering? If so, why? Have you gone to any other shops?

raceboy

I never thought about this before. Is Emonda some kind of riff on the Lemond name by Trek to avoid trademark infringement?

Camilo

They started with Madone. I think they had a bunch of the letters left over so they came up with Domane and Emonda as a way to use them up. Gives their marketing a Euro/Italian flare, no?

downhillmaster

Yes, many people consider and buy other brands. Hence the reason there are a lot of other bikes on the road other than Trek. Not sure how anyone on the planet could be unaware of this fact.
And ofc nobody online is qualified to tell you what is or is not worth it to you as it pertains to waiting a year for an item.
Again, not sure how anyone on the planet can not be aware of this fact.
Great post otherwise though

Trakhak

As pointed out above, Trek has used various anagrams of "Madone" to name some of their top bike models. From this page:

If you’ve ever read Lance Armstrong’s book “It’s Not About the Bike” (he was right) you’ll know that the Col de la Madone is one of the climbs that the Texan used to frequent in his preparation for the Tour de France. If he was able to set a good time up the Madone (read on to see what “a good time” was) he “knew” he was going to win Le Tour.

wilson_smyth

Normally this is can be true for some, if they don't care about warranties, but not these days. in Europe the bike to work scheme is tax back up to 1k, so effectively 500 euro off any bike over 1k. Getting a 1k bike for 500, or 2k bike for 1500 is a pretty good deal. The effect of this is that a 3nd hand bike has to be drastically reduced to make it worth buying over a discounted new bike. Many are unwilling to take 750-1000 quid off the sticker price of their bike to get it sold. I'm pretty sure it's resulted in tens of thousands of very good bikes gathering dust in a shed or rusting away in the back yard, unrealistic perceived value. But still some of these bikes did make it to the 2nd hand market.

With shortages the 2nd market is terrible now too.
Most are holding onto their good bikes as they can't get anything better new right now without waiting months, and any that are for sale are asking silly prices for 2nd hand bikes purely because of lack of supply.

To the OP:
I got a bike last may. If I had a choice of multiple brands and models, it's not number one that I would have picked but there was very limited choice and stock. 2 guys in my dept couldn't get a similar bike after so I'm certain it was one of the last in stock in the country at that time, and for considerable time.

If I had rejected it I'd have missed out on a year of cycling, the fitness, seeing new places and places I knew from a different perspective. I'd have missed out on the outlet it gave when thd place was locked down.

Can't see any reason to be married to trek. Most companies will do a similar bike in 5he category that you want which you could just accept as is or at worst, change a few components.

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TiHabanero

"Nice ... that wouldn't be one that Trek built?"

FYI, Trek doesn't build bikes. They contract out to Asian manufacturers to have bikes with their name on them produced. Specialized the same. Giant does build bikes in their own factories and builds bikes for a multitude of other brands. Merida is another brand that has factories and manufactures their own bikes. Am I being too nit-picky? Just semantics I suppose.

Koyote

Well, we can’t ALL find bikes in dumpsters.

DaveSSS 

I've never owned a Trek, Specialized or Giant bike, but I have owned several Cannondales, the last in 1992. Since then I've owned Tommasini, Litespeed, four Colnago, one Cervelo, one Fondriest, four LOOK and now two Cinelli superstar disc frames. There are other choices. I really like the geometry on the new Cinelli superstar. The paint and build quality (from Taiwan) are excellent. The frames weigh less than an Emonda SL.

bruce19

My LBS was all giddy when they got 1 CAAD 13 in. It was gone in a heartbeat.

bruce19

Which is why I won't buy a Trek.

bruce19

No

GlennR

Mine has a waiting list and some have been on it for months.

I'm glad I got my wife to let me buy her a new bike in 2019.

sincos

Not any more they do, but they used to (unlike, say, Specialized). IIRC at least some of the Lemonds were built by Trek, though.

Snotrub

I've purchased 2 new Trek bikes in the past several months. The first was my Domane SL6. It was the exact bike I wanted for mostly road riding with the capability of riding dirt roads. I waited 3 months for it to come in and it was worth it, in my opinion, which is the only one that matters because I'm the one riding it. Then, I wanted a new full suspension mountain bike, so I was looking at Kona, Trek and Pivot. I chose the Trek Top Fuel 9.8 XT. Not available until August. Then I started looking at the 9.7 in red. Not available until June, but the gun metal grey 9.7 was available before Thanksgiving, so I ordered it the end of October along with GX rear deraileur and shifters. It came in the week of Christmas. Worth the wait. I raced Cannondale for many years and had a loyalty to that brand, but really missed riding Trek. They fit me so much better.

Noahma

I was told by my Orbea dealer that They were having problems getting components. I went to place an order for an Orca using the MyO customization, and no go. I just stashed the funding for that away to wait for the 2022's.

bruce19

It's a made up name. Pronounce it as you like.

Hiro11

I have been in the market for a bike for the past couple of months and looked/ called around the various shops in my area. In my area, there is no way to get a high end Trek, Specialized, Cannondale or Giant unless the bike shop in question has the exact model you're looking for in the exact size you need. Needless to say, the odds of this happening are slim. I live in a very large city and there are many bike shops to choose from. Regardless, nothing is in stock anywhere. The majority of the shops were not even willing to take an order as they were already snowed in with prior orders and could not guarantee delivery. I appreciated the honesty actually. Going online, I set up notifications from Canyon and a couple of other brands about six weeks ago and I have yet to see any of the bikes I want come back into stock.

I gave up and found a sweet used bike on The Pro's Closet (excellent service, BTW). My bike was delayed a day or two in shipping out. I emailed them and unsurprisingly they are absolutely slammed with orders.

What I take from all this: if you're in the market for a new bike in 2021, you're likely going to have to wait until 2022.

Snotrub

That was the main hold up on my bikes. SRAM equipped bikes had less lead time than Shimano equipped bikes and a lot of Shimano bikes weren't available at all. Trek put estimated arrival dates on most of their bikes on their dealer only inventory page and some didn't have a date at all.

indyfabz

Like SRAM?

bruce19

Yup

veganbikes

SRAM is an acronym for the founds Scott, Ray and Sam or for Static Random Access Memory.