TREK'S 2005 CARBON-FIBER BIKE LINEUP

First off, we'll answer the oft-asked question- What does Lance ride?

In 2003, Trek embarked upon an ambitious project to give Lance the absolute-best bike in the peloton. Up to that point his bikes had been refinements of the original Trek carbon bike, the 5500, culminating in the 5900 (his "climbing" bike) that helped him destroy his competition at Sestriere, and became his go-to bike for every important race after that. It was a tough bike to improve upon, especially for a tough customer like Lance! But after a whole lot of research & development, including extensive wind tunnel testing, the Madone was unveiled for him at the '03 Tour de France. And he rode it... in a few flat stages. Despite all the work that had gone into proving to Lance that aerodynamics were important, Lance went back to his slightly-lighter go-to bike, the 5900, for the most-critical stages of the Tour de France, including the pivotal Luz Ardiden stage, where a spectator's bag strap caused him to crash, after which he got back up and rode away from everyone else to win the race.

Lance liked the improved lateral stiffness of the Madone, but the "aero" version of the Madone wasn't as clean & simple & light as the 5900, which he had an almost superstitious attachment to. So Trek engineers were left scratching their heads and went to work figuring out how to make Lance the perfect bike. It was simple, really... just get rid of the aero bits. No "tailfin" behind the seat tube, no aero bulge on the downtube and voila, a lighter, simpler bike that Lance took to immediately. These new bikes became known as the "SL" (for "SuperLight") and "SSL" (for "SuperSuperLight"). From a marketing standpoint, it was a bit of a disaster, since Trek strongly felt that a bike with a bit more shape to it (the "aero" version) was going to find more favor with the public, because it looked cooler. A deal was worked out, where Lance would ride the "aero" version for flatter stages, and save the "SL" and "SSL" bikes for the mountains... and, for a short bit of time, that's what Lance did. A very short bit of time. He then went entirely to the non-aero versions for just about all racing, while most of the rest of the team rode the aero bikes. So, for 2004, the public could only buy the aero Madone, while Lance rode to victory on his SSL prototype.

Trek is pretty conservative and sometimes stubborn; they believed that the aero Madone made a lot of sense, both from an aerodynamic standpoint as well as aesthetic. They felt that the "SL" and "SSL" versions look too "plain" for most customers... so they drastically limited the availability of the non-aero versions of the Madone. That policy continued from 2005 into 2006, but Chain Reaction did everything possible to secure a steady supply of the "SL" and "SSL" versions, including the almost-impossible-to-get 5.2 SL, their least-expensive Madone with the 110 gsm super-duper carbon tubing.

But getting back to what Lance rides, in 2005 Trek took the SSL, added a bit of boron reinforcement to the bottom bracket area to make it stiffer, and sent him out on what is now known as the SSLX. The weight is the same as last year's SSL (although some of the reports in the press would have you believe otherwise), but about $3000 more expensive. It's the absolute ultimate road bike, and, truth be told, would not have existed were it not for Lance... but for Lance, Trek will do just about anything. 2006 SSLX bikes are already in stock at Chain Reaction, in limited sizes. When they're gone, that's it, no more at any price.

Now getting back to what TREK has to offer you in 2005- (We're into the '06 model year now, but most of this is still relevant. --Mike-- 11/30/05)

This page shows all current Trek carbon fiber bikes with conventional road geometry. Missing are the new "Pilot" series bikes, which have top tubes that rise at the front, allowing for a taller handlebar height. We'll set up a page showing those shortly, as well as describe why somebody might want a Pilot instead of one of the more "conventional" bikes shown below (but, in brief, the Pilots will be preferred by those who are looking for a more upright riding position, or the ability to put a rack and fenders on their bike).

There are so many more models this year than last that we've put together a chart, at the bottom of this page, showing the various options at a glance. It's still pretty confusing though; Trek increased their different carbon offerings by over 200% from 2004 to 2005!

WHY YOU MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO BUY ONE OF THESE BIKES-

Unfortunately, production hasn't come close to keeping up with demand, resulting in massive shortages of the most-popular models.
By mid-April, Trek owed Chain Reaction 72 (yes, seventy-two) 5.2SLs from orders dating as far back as October '04. We are, slowly, getting some of that product. But we've been told that large-scale deliveries would commence shortly... in December, in February, and again in early March. And we told customers that, as did other shops, because that's the information we had. As a result, there's been a loss of credibility between shops and customers, and we sincerely regret that this has happened, but I can assure you that (in most cases), when your local shop told you they'd have a Madone in 3 weeks and that was two months ago and you're still waiting, the shop wasn't trying to string you along. They had no way of knowing that things would get so bad.

Not only that, but because Trek changed their computer system (during the busiest time of the year), it has become almost impossible to track bikes they actually have shipped to a dealer, so bikes sometimes suddenly show up at the dealer's door without warning. We can't even call people to tell them that, finally, their bike left the factory and they'll have it in 6 days. We've literally lost sales of some of these bikes during that period... customers giving up and buying a different bike, or perhaps seeing one at another dealer where it may have arrived one day earlier...even though that other dealer may not be the best place to get the bike from (less expertise in fit & assembly, not as good taking care of things down the road, etc). The customer just doesn't know when the original dealer will get the bike, because they've been told so many stories.

My best advice is this- if you hear that another dealer actually has the bike you're looking for, call up the dealer where you have it on order, and have them call their inside rep to see if your bike is in-transit (which it might be, as bikes are released in batches). If that's the case, sit tight and very shortly you'll be having a great time on your new bike. If that's not the case, then you need to think about the differences between the shops and what made you choose them in the first place. If it's the quality of the dealership, then you might want to sit tight, since you're going to have the bike for a very long time, and the differences between one shop and the next can have a lot to do with how much you'll enjoy and even use the bike down the road.

YOU'VE FOUND THE RIGHT BIKE- NOW WHAT?

You've found your bike...it's got the right features, feels great while riding, etc.  Now you need to get measured for proper fit.  The frame size on what you rode might be correct... then again, it might not.  At Chain Reaction, we use the New England Cycling Academy's FitKit system, which takes a series of measurements of the rider, to make sure we have not only the correct frame size, but top-tube plus stem distance (critically important and frequently ignored!), seat-to-handlebar drop, seat height, handlebar width and more.  It's not a matter of how much clearance you have standing over the frame!  That might help get you in the ballpark, but since the front-to-back distance of a frame changes with size, your arm & torso measurements might dictate a frame size different than standover height might indicate.

Please note that, in the majority of cases, the stem length on the bike will need to be changed.  This isn't a big deal if the shop sells a lot of road bikes...they'll have the various stems in stock and ready to go.  I would suggest that any shop not willing to swap the stem for proper fit on a road bike may not be a good place to buy one!  In most cases, there should be no charge for a stem swap, but there will be times where you have to go to a stem that might cost a bit more, or perhaps because it's a lot higher they might need to replace several cables & housings, which definitely takes a lot of time.  In those cases, you could expect to pay a small amount of money to cover the difference and/or the labor involved.

Fortunately, at Chain Reaction we have such a tremendous number of road bikes in stock that there's rarely an issue getting someone set up with exactly the right size bike, right then and there.  But Chain Reaction, with over 300 road bikes in stock at any one time, is not exactly typical, so don't be surprised if getting the proper fit involves waiting for one to come in.  It will be worth the wait, especially if the alternative is a bike that doesn't feel quite right because the fit's wrong.  If your local shop doesn't have a zillion road bikes in stock, that's not necessarily an indication that they're not serious about road bikes...could be they just don't have such a highly-developed road bike market like we do in the SF Bay Area, and can't afford to have a huge number of bikes sitting around, waiting for you.  Not a problem for us...the number of road bikes we sell would make most shops heads spin.

After you find your new dream machine, you might check out our Taking Care of your Road Bike article.

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