Flip Flop Rider

OK I'll take a shot

Trek is now associated with one word, Lance, hence the contempt and dare I say, hatred for a brand name.

They make good bikes, and so do other companies, but the other companies seem to lack the notoriety.

coffeesnob

is Bontrager a junky brand?

52telecaster

No, but they are no different than any other component manufacturer now. Kinda like the origin8 that trek owns

coominya

Lol. People sell companies mostly for profit. If you had ever seen what goes on behind the scenes of a small enterprise, the endless nights of work, the struggling to maintain a market share, the pressures of sales targets... Then one day some guys in suits come along and offer you enough money to fund an early retirement, what do you do? You sell and your life becomes simple again.

Little manufacturers appear because of a dream and a series great of ideas. Then it's all work work work.

Gresp15C

Indeed, I've worked for small businesses, and operate one myself right now.

exmechanic89

Exactly. The Bontrager stuff Trek makes is still pretty decent, but it's not the unique low quan/high quality stuff Bontrager made before the buy out. It's just another brand..

kcjc

Don't have any experience with LeMond & Diamont, but the other bands already went down the road of introducing lower end mediocre bikes before Trek took over. They just discontinued carrying the upper end stuff which in the shop I worked at did not sell (Palo Alto, CA so exotic is not unknown).

Agreed.

ColonelSanders

I've heard people bag Trek bikes for being too ubiquitous and thus lacking soul.

Jeff Neese

And Trek was one of them. I'll take a hand-built Wisconsin lugged Trek frame any day. That's how they started out - frames only. Now they have sold out and became what we all hate, and now there's no difference between Trek, Specialized, Giant, and Cannondale. Same mass-market crap from all of them.

And that's what happens to any company they buy. The uniqueness and/or quality is degraded, and only the name remains to attract the unwary. Fisher is the best example.

raceboy

I imagine a small business owner has two dreams for success.

1. Become a big company and hire others to do the work while you bank the profit.

2. Be bought by a big company and bank the profit.

trail_monkey

I didn't know a lot of this stuff. All I'm going to say is I hate every corporation I don't care what product they make. Corporations killed America.

Trsnrtr

Reported. Take it to P&R.

Gresp15C

Indeed, in both cases you're taking advantage of the fact that your business grows to the point where your capital is worth more than your labor.

However, many business owners acknowledge that these things don't always happen, and are satisfied with a third option, to run the business at a minimal growth rate that provides for their lifestyle. That's actually how I run my very small business. I don't want to go through the phase where it gets big enough that I have to quit my day job, but not big enough to support my family.

coffeesnob

Are any moderately priced bikes made in the U.S.?

dedhed

As a "Local Boy" I like to see Trek doing well. They do many good things for our state as well as bicycling in general. I've bought a few over the years and have never had any issue. They are a corporation, they do things that make sense for them to remain a viable entity in the business. Sometimes that means innovation, sometimes acquisition.

eja_ bottecchia

I don't hate Trek. Even though I prefer Italian-made road bikes, I believe that Trek makes fine bikes. My wife's Madone 5.2 is a fine, competent bike.

BTW, please stop equating cycling "civility"' with waving. It's a freaking bike ride, not a wave-fest.

Wave until your wrists ache if you must. Just stop equating a refusal to wave as some sort of apocalyptic demise of cycling civility.

Now I am off to my non-waving ride!

OldsCOOL

The glory days of the Trek back in the '80s still exists in the hearts and minds of those that still collect and ride them. Everything changes, especially our "next new thing" culture.

Here is my thread offering of the fleet, an '86 760 Pro Series with 531c (trident fork crowned frame), full Campy NR drivetrain and Modolo brakes. Super cool.

[IMG][/IMG]

joejack951

Custom Bicycle Frames from Gunnar Cycles USA

Cyclist0108

I pretty much bought mostly Treks since the 1980s, and have given them big chunks of my paycheck, but my last one I hated so much I wound up giving it away (to someone who appreciates it). But what put me off was how their bike shops seem to be run. The priority seems to be to stick a siphon hose in your wallet and send you out the door with whatever ill-fitting bike they can con you into. I stopped buying them when the family-owned mellow Trek place closed down, and was replaced by the bike-shop equivalent of an auto stealership (complete with the overpriced repair shop).

In retrospect, I think the transition came about around the same time they stopped manufacturing (most) frames in Waterloo.

NormanF

Trek's high end bikes were and are still hand-made in Madison. That's how a local start up became a global conglomerate.

Most Trek bikes nowadays come from Taiwan. Its just where the expertise and everything else goes into building bikes for the mass market.

I've owned Gary Fisher and Lemond in the past - before Trek killed the brands off.

Spider

Jeff Neese

Indeed. My first Trek was a 1983 720, the full-on touring bike and believed by some to be the best touring bike ever made. I can tell you mine was 100% trouble-free over many thousands of miles. Beautiful hand-built lugged frame. After a fair number of years she was showing her age, and Trek repainted it for me in their factory so I had it "brand new" twice. I loved that bike like no other. That's the one I'd like to have back if I could.

I currently have both a 1989 Singletrack 970 and 1993 Singletrack 930, both full lugged DB chromoly and really, really great riding bikes. I think any of the higher-end early Treks (pre-1993 lugged frames built in Wisconsin) are some of the best frames around.

ColonelSanders

A lot of people are down on their luck and a wave makes them feel not so isolated from the rest of society.

exmechanic89

^Really nice bikes alright.

I've got older Treks (90's) as well as an '03 5900 I'm currently building, which is an incredible frame-set. Not sure why some posters are bashing the newer (than vintage) Treks, their carbon frames are a work of art, imo. I worked in one of the first shops to carry Trek back when they were barely known, and the first bikes we got in were pretty awful. The frames had really poor lug work/brazing, and I remember being shocked at how bad they were compared to the Japanese frames we had at the time. Obviously Trek fixed all that in time, and has become a juggernaut in the industry, but some of those early frames were nothing to get excited about.

eja_ bottecchia

Perhaps so. But I prefer donating to charities and volunteering at local shelters. I sincerely doubt that many of the riders that I encounter on my rides, riding on their high end bikes, are really down on their luck.

I suppose that if you extend your concept to its logical conclusion, you would be waiving at every passing motorist that you encounter on the road--they too may be down on their luck.

And, to really maximize your theory, then we should all ride our bikes through the nearest skid row. The people there sure do need cheering.

Peace & Love.