This week Trek Bicycle launched its new generation of its eight-time Tour de France-winning road bikes, and these include the sure-to-be head turning 7 Series Madone that promises to save riders an enormous 25 watts over the previous generation at 40kph. At 750 grams, the 7 Series Madone frame is the lightest available to consumers, while it also marks the debut of Trek’s U5 Vapor Coat paint scheme, a sub five-gram aesthetic option that uses no decals and minimal paint. Trek’s engineers were also able to remove nearly 200 grams from the frame and fork, without sacrificing any of the balanced ride for which the Madone is famous. With the Madone’s ride-tuned seat mast and reshaped, KVF seat stays, vertical compliance on the new 7 Series is 25% greater than the nearest competitor, with zero loss of lateral stiffness. Additional images after the jump
Tag: OCLV
Trek Recycling Efforts Shift Into High Gear
This week Waterloo, Wisconsin-based announced that its pilot program Materials Innovation Technologies has cycled more than 70,000 lbs. of carbon fiber in the year since the program was first initiated. Since April of last year, all manufacturing scraps, non-compliant frame components, and select reclaimed warranty frames undergo processing at Material Innovation Technologies’s South Carolina facility for repurposing in reinforced thermoplastic applications, including aerospace, automotive, medical and recreational applications.
“We’re really proud of the results that we have had in just one year,” said Trek’s Senior Composites Manufacturing Engineer Jim Colegrove. “Now that carbon has become such a commonly used material in cycling, it’s important for all brands to consider the entire life cycle of a product.” Continue reading Trek Recycling Efforts Shift Into High Gear