All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but is it actually work or play when you get to check out the latest upcoming bicycles? From the smile on Brian’s face above, it certainly seems like work he really enjoys. Check out some more of the sights from this week’s Outdoor Demo Days at Interbike 2011: Continue reading Interbike 2011: KineticShift Gets Down and Dirty
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELrnwZWXkwk&feature=youtu.be
Trek and bike-related art organization ARTCRANK collaborated to create a bike about art. The result is the Trek District ARTCRANK Edition. The Trek District is Trek’s top commuter bike. The limited edition features graphics created by ARTCRANK Lead Designer Rob Angermuller.
The Trek District ARTCRANK Edition is a single-speed belt drive bike that’s predominantly white with black and red graphics on the frame and rims. We at KineticShift find white bikes to be striking, and this bike with its bold white black and red graphics is no exception. Continue reading Trek Makes Bike about Art
There are bikes that are ideal for off-road adventures, and bikes that will get you going fast on the road. For everyone else Trek Bicycles has revamped its line of bestselling fitness riding-targeted FX bikes. These are aimed at commuters as well as modern fitness riders, and are built around the concept of the “the fastest way to fit.”
The team behind the FX line looked at the needs of urban commuters and causal suburban riders alike and assessed what was needed for those who don’t always tone Lycra yet mostly stick to the road. The result is a bike that borrows from Trek’s road heritage and technology, combined with an emphasis on comfort and all around practicality. The FX line features road bike compact double cranks, and a tapered E2 headtube on key models to provide lively ride quality while the refined rack and rim lock mounts make the bike even more practical for city and suburban riding. Continue reading FX Offers New Way to Trek by Bike
Some products are easy to buy online. A book, a DVD, even some basic clothing can be bought without a visit to an actual brick and mortar retailer. But some products, such as bicycle accessories, are better when bought at a retail outlet, where size and feel aren’t just important, they’re crucial.
The downside for many retailers is that it is difficult to carry endless models of every product available. But now Trek Bicycle has announced that it will be helping qualified brick and mortar retail shops get the best of both worlds. The manufacturer has launched “Trek Sync” and fulfillment services, where Trek will warehouse and fulfill aftermarket product orders placed on Trek retailers’ websites. To ensure a seamless transition to ecommerce, retailers will have access to Trek’s network of warehousing facilities, professional distribution staff, and logistics expertise while remaining the point of transaction. Continue reading Trek Bicycles Syncs With Online Sales
Setting up the suspension on a mountain bike can be a little confusing. How much air pressure is required? How many turns are needed for compression and/or rebound knobs? What springs are used? Does a shock from Rock Shox require a different setup configuration than one from Fox? Where are the instruction manuals?!?! If you are the owner of a 2011 or 2012 full suspension Trek mountain bike, Trek has made this job a little easier for you.
Trek has recently created a calculator to assist these owners in setting up their bikes. Simply navigate over to the site, select your bike and enter your weight. The calculator returns all of the settings that you will need to adjust your shocks. Once you have your settings, you will need your shock pump, sag meter and preferably a friend to help make these adjustments. The sag meter is usually a simple plastic clip attached to the upper leg of a suspension fork to measure the distance the fork sinks when the rider sits on the bike. The friend helps in the process since, it’s sometimes difficult to visually see how much the bike sags under the weight of the rider, if you’re the rider.
The Trek suspension calculator provides the rider a good starting point for adjusting their shocks – certainly not the final settings. Usually the hardest part of adjusting all of the variables on a full suspension bike is knowing where to start. Once this starting point is determined, minor adjustments can then be made with regards to air pressure, compression and rebound to achieve a truly ‘custom’ ride. This calculator is an excellent tool to help Trek owners setup up there bikes to achieve its full potential.
A few weeks back, we mentioned that Trek was going to be recycling carbon fiber bicycle frames as carbon fiber is not as “green” as all metal bike frames. Now it appears that Specialized, the manufacturer that created the frame that Alberto Contador just rode to victory in the Giro d’Italia, is creating their own environmental initiative. Some carbon fiber breaks can be repaired, but when is comes to the end of the line, carbon fiber is not a material that can easily be recycled.
This week Bicycle Retailer reported that Specialized has launched a comprehensive sustainability initiative by incorporating Outdoor Industry Association Eco-Index evaluation of their products during product creation, and leading a carbon fiber recycling coalition. Specialized has become the first major industry member to join the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) Eco-Index—a comprehensive system for evaluating and improving the environmental footprint of products during the design stage. Continue reading Specialized Jumps on the Eco-Wagon
All good things come to an end, and that means today’s hot new road bikes will someday be old news, outdated technology and just ready to be replaced (even Lance Armstrong’s road bike at the left). It might be hard to even think about it, especially when we see the sticker price on those new carbon bikes – but carbon isn’t exactly as timeless as a diamond, at least not in the processed form.
The downside is that many space age composites are designed not to degrade so easily. Carbon fiber doesn’t rust like steel, but unlike steel, aluminum or titanium carbon can’t be melted down as scrap metal. In other words carbon fiber isn’t exactly a “green” technology, but now it seems Trek is just one bicycle maker looking to get on the recycling band wagon. Continue reading Trek to Recycle Old Carbon Cycles
Triathlon season, despite what the current weather situation, is just around the corner, and this month Trek and K-Swiss held a tam camp in Kona, Hawaii, where the latter introduced four new running shoes for 2011, as well as a new trail shoe that will hit it in 2012.
This is quite a step forward for K-Swiss, which just a few years ago was primarily a tennis brand. Now the times have changed and K-Swiss looks to be a major player in the running market – despite the fact that the company has been on somewhat shaky ground, recently noting that worldwide revenue for 2010 was down almost 10 percent.
But now the company looks to be putting its best foot, or rather shoe forward for 2011. Triathlete reported last week that K-Swiss rolled out the four new shoes, which include the Kwicky Blade-Light, a trainer/racing shoe built upon the Blade-Light sole; the K-Ruuz 1.5, ultra-light flat; the Blade-Light Run, which will be available in a safety-oriented neon reflective sole; and finally the Blade-Max Trail, which features a sturdier version of the Blade-Light sole.
[Via Examiner: Atlana Shoe Market: new models from K-Swiss]
[Via Triathlete: K-Swiss Reveals 2011 Running Shoes At Trek/K-Swiss Triathlon Camp]
Andy and Frank Schleck, along with Fabian Cancellara, Jakob Fuglsang, Jens Voigt and Stuart O’Grady will be looking crafty this summer as they take to the roads of France and beyond. As part of the new Luxembourg Pro Cycling project they’ll be deck out in Craft Performance Apparel reports Velonation.
The apparel company will work with the team in 2011 and beyond, and offer riders the sleek clothing that it has developed for skiing and speed-skating. For the Schlecks as well as Cancellara it won’t be much of a change as they wore Craft attire with Saxo Bank as well.
Craft is the latest sponsor to join the new Luxembourg squad, as equipment suppliers Trek and Mercedes were previously on board. Now all that’s left is to see the actual uniform take shape.
[Via Velonation: Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project to use Craft Performance Apparel clothing]
This week Waterloo, Wisconsin based Trek Bicycles announced that it would sponsor a new pro cycling team for next year’s Tour de France. This new, to be named team, will be led by two-time Tour runner-up, and white jersey (for best young rider) winner Andy Schlek.
Schlek and his brother Frank, who was unable to finish this year’s Tour de France after crashing out early in the multi-stage race, had previously announced that they would be leaving the Saxo Bank team to start their own team based in their native Luxembourg for the upcoming season. This team has yet to announce its full roster or title sponsor.
Trek will join Specialized Bicycles in being a company that will provide cycles to more than one team, as this year Specialized had provided the bikes for Alberto Contador’s Team Astana. Contador, who won the tour, has made the move to Saxo Bank, which was the other team riding Specialized this year. It was also the first time that a Specialized bike was used by a tour winner. Contador and Team Astana had previously ridden Trek, but the company followed Lance Armstrong to the Radio Shack team for this season.
It was announced that Trek would continue to provide bikes for Radio Shack next season, despite the fact that Armstrong has announced that he will be retiring. It isn’t clear if Astana will be in the Tour next season, or if the company will be using Specialized bikes.
With the Tour de France is full gear there has been no shortage of expensive bikes on TV and in the news. Think those pricey? Actually, those cycles are small change, at least compared to some of the truly expensive rides that can be hand. Forbes magazine offered a peak at some of “The World’s Most Expensive Bicycles,” complete with a slide-show.
Now in fairness, most of these bikes aren’t the type you’re likely to find at your local bike shop – and although some of the bikes are based on off-the-shelf frames, the bikes included are one-of-a-kind pieces of works, decked out in jewels and featuring exclusive paint jobs. Interestingly, many of these bikes are now in private collections, such as a Trek Madone 7-Diamond, which was decorated with 100 white diamonds in honor of Lance Armstrong’s record-breaking seventh Tour de France victory in 2005. That bike was auctioned for charity and sold for $75,000.
Other bikes included in the slide show feature gold leaf and special finishes. When you consider that most serious riders get pretty upset when they scratch the paint or nick a decal, imagine even thinking about risking these bikes on a road ride!
If you blinked you might have missed it, but Trek Bicycles introduced its highly anticipated line of new Triathlon and Time Trial specific bikes at last week’s Tour of California. The Speed Concept line of bicycles was used in last Saturday’s Stage 7 Time Trial is Los Angeles, and the aerodynamic profile was sure to turn heads. The KVF tube shape makes for a sleek cycle to reduce drag, and get you to the finish line in style. If weren’t in the City of Angeles, or didn’t catch the race on TV, you’ll soon get to see the bikes, which should be riding into stores soon.
You also won’t need to be a sponsored rider either, as Trek will offer the Speed Concept in three unique platforms for 2010, with a total of 12 models – to fit most price ranges, and with five unique sizes and six different stems, this concept will fit the frame of the rider like a glove.
The high-end Speed Concept 9 Series models utilize OCLV2 Carbon and can be fully customizable through Trek’s custom bike program, Project One. For those with a more modest budget, or just looking to get a solid ride off the shelf, the company offers the Speed Concept 7 Series, which is comprised of five models. These bikes, with prices ranging from $2899 to $3799, offer the same revolutionary aerodynamic advantages of the 9 Series but are constructed of Trek’s TCT carbon. These bikes will have you looking good on the road, and looking sharp at the finish line.