Trek Bicycle Corporation is a major bicycle and cycling product manufacturer
and distributor under brand names Trek, Electra Bicycle Company, Gary Fisher,
Bontrager, Diamant Bikes, Villiger Bikes and until 2008, LeMond Racing Cycles and
Klein. With its headquarters in Waterloo, Wisconsin, Trek bicycles are
marketed through 1,700 dealers across North America, subsidiaries in Europe
and Asia as well as distributors in 90 countries worldwide.
History = 1975–1979 The early years=
In December, 1975, Richard Burke and Bevil Hogg established Trek Bicycle as a
wholly owned subsidiary of Roth Corporation, a Milwaukee-based appliance
distributor. In early 1976, with a payroll of five, Trek started
manufacturing steel touring frames in Waterloo, Wisconsin, taking aim at the
mid to high-end market dominated by Japanese and Italian made models. Trek
built nearly 900 custom hand-brazed framesets that first year, each selling
for just under $200. Later that same year Trek Bicycle was incorporated. In
1977, Penn Cycle in Richfield, Minnesota became the first Trek dealer in the
world. Within three years, Trek sales approached $2,000,000.
= 1980–1984 Trek becomes a business= Hampered without additional
manufacturing capacity, Trek sales plateaued in the late 1970s. In just a
few years Trek had outgrown its original “red barn” manufacturing facility—a
former carpet warehouse. Recognizing the need for expansion, in 1980 Trek broke
ground on a new 26,000 sq ft corporate headquarters on the outskirts of
Waterloo. Company co-founder Dick Burke would later recall that “it wasn’t until
we built the new factory that we became a business.” With more factory space
available, Trek expanded its manufacturing to include complete bikes.
In 1981 Trek entered the steel road racing bike market, introducing the
"Pro" line, including the 750 and 950 models, and in 1983 Trek built its first
mountain bike, the 850. In 1984 Trek ventured into the aftermarket parts and
accessories business, launching its Trek Components Group department.
= 1985–1991 Technology frontier= In 1985, borrowing technology from the
aerospace industry,, Trek introduced its first bonded aluminum bike frame, the
2000. The introduction of bonded aluminum to Trek’s production line
proved very problematic for a company that had built itself on hand-brazed
steel frames. Manufacturing ground to a halt as Trek worked to figure out how to
build bonded frames in a production environment. A year later Trek followed
up the success of the 2000 with a 3-tube carbon composite model, the 2500. Thus
began Trek’s foray into carbon fiber. That same year, to keep up with rapidly
growing sales, Trek added another 75,000 sq ft of manufacturing space to its
Waterloo headquarters. In 1988 Trek introduced “Trek Wear,” marking the
company’s entry into the cycling apparel business. A year later Trek expanded
into foreign markets, opening subsidiary offices in the UK and in Germany. That
same year Trek introduced its Jazz brand of bicycles, a collection of entry-level
and kids’ bikes designed by Trek but manufactured in Taiwan. Jazz bicycles
were discontinued in 1993. 1989 was a pivotal year for Trek,
marking the year that the company unveiled its first molded carbon fiber
frame, the Trek 5000. The 5000 frameset had an advertised weight of 3.3 lb.
Designed by Trek but built by Brent Trimble, an outside manufacturer, the
5000 suffered enough quality problems that it was discontinued after just one
year. But the lessons learned from the 5000 would prove to be instrumental in
driving Trek to develop its own carbon manufacturing capabilities in the coming
years. In 1990 Trek developed a new category of
bicycle that combined the comfort features of a mountain bike with the
quick ride of a road bike: MultiTracks, Trek’s first line of hybrid bikes, were
born. That same year Trek also introduced its first line of kids’
bikes. In 1991 Trek opened its first company-owned retail store in nearby
Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to showcasing a full line of Trek products,
the Trek Store served as a hands-on sales training center for employees from
Trek's headquarters who lacked retail experience. The store also provided an
outlet for Trek to test merchandising and marketing ideas before expanding
them to its network of independent bicycle dealers.
= 1992–1996 OCLV and acquisitions= In the early 1990s, Trek’s director of
technology, Bob Read, attended an aerospace industry trade show in Salt
Lake City, Utah, eventually meeting up with a closed mold tooling company
called Radius Engineering. That visit convinced Read that Trek’s future
success depended on building frames from carbon fiber, a material he envisioned
could be used to make light, strong frames. Having lived through the
troubled introduction of the 5000, Trek invested heavily in in-house carbon
fiber manufacturing capabilities. In 1992 Trek unveiled its first home-grown,
full-carbon framed bicycles, the 5500 and 5200, featuring OCLV Carbon frames.
OCLV stands for “Optimum Compaction, Low Void” and refers to Trek’s proprietary
process for creating carbon structures that exceed aerospace standards.
Weighing only 2.44 lb, the 5500 frame was the world’s lightest production road
frame. To make room for its new OCLV manufacturing facility, Trek expanded
its Waterloo headquarters again to a total of 140,000 sq ft. 1992 marked
another first for Trek: its first full suspension mountain bike, the
9000-series, which featured Trek’s T3C suspension system.
In 1993 Trek introduced its first OCLV Carbon mountain bike frames, the 9800
and the 9900, which at 2.84 lb was the world’s lightest production mountain
bike frame. In 1993 Trek also acquired Gary Fisher
Mountain Bikes, named after Gary Fisher, one of the inventors of the mountain
bike and one of the most popular names in off-road cycling. Fisher had founded
Gary Fisher Mountain Bikes in 1983 and sold his company in 1991 to Taiwan's
Anlen company, remaining on as President. In 1992, Howie Cohen, who had
previously imported Nishiki, Azuki and Kuwahara bicycles, assisted Gary Fisher
with his brand — 18 months later brokering the acquisition of Fisher by
Trek. In 1994 Trek entered the growing home
fitness arena, introducing Trek Fitness Exercycles. In 1996 Trek discontinued
the Exercycle line, spinning off its fitness division into an
independently-owned company, renamed Vision Fitness.
In 1995, Trek introduced its full suspension Y bike, a departure from
traditional bike design. The Y bike sold well, and won an “Outstanding Design and
Engineering Award” from Popular Mechanics magazine. Also in 1995, Trek
made a number of business moves in order to diversify its product offering and
gain market share, acquiring Klein Bicycles, a Chehalis, WA, manufacturer
of premium aluminum-framed bicycles, as well as Bontrager Cycles, a Santa Cruz,
CA-based manufacturer of bicycle components and hand-built steel frames.
Trek also signed a long-term licensing agreement with Greg LeMond, the 3-time
Tour de France champion and the first American to win the Tour—to design,
build, and distribute LeMond Racing Cycles. 1995 was also the year Trek
opened a state-of-the-art assembly facility in Whitewater, Wisconsin,
leaving the Waterloo location free to focus solely on frame production.
= 1997–2005 The Armstrong years and further expansion=
In 1997, Trek helped sign former world road race champion Lance Armstrong to
the Trek-sponsored United States Postal Service Pro Cycling Team. Armstrong won
his first Tour de France in 1999 aboard a Trek 5500, becoming the first American
to win the Tour on an American team riding an American made bicycle.
Armstrong went on to win a record-setting seven-consecutive Tours
de France, all of them aboard Trek bicycles. He did at some points ride a
Litespeed bike, painted and badged as a Trek. In 2012, all of Armstrong's Tour
victories were rescinded after Armstrong was found to have violated anti-doping
regulations. In 1998, Trek established its Advanced
Concepts Group, a collection of engineers and technicians dedicated to
technologies development. The leading edge of Trek’s design and engineering
efforts, ACG is perhaps best known for a number of products introduced and used
by Lance Armstrong during his historic Tour de France wins, including the
original Trek Madone—named for the Col de la Madone, a 12K climb that starts in
the French town of Menton and used by Armstrong to test his fitness—and TTX
time trial bike. That same year Trek opened its first European manufacturing
facility, a frame and wheel assembly plant in Carlow, Ireland. The Carlow
facility stayed open until late 2004, at which time Trek transferred its European
production to a manufacturing facility in Hartmannsdorf, Germany.
Responding to the unique needs of female cyclists, in 2000 Trek introduced
Women’s Specific Design bicycle and accessories. WSD products are designed
to fit female riders, and feature sizing and proportions appropriate for women.
In October 2001, Trek introduced a custom bike program named Project One,
which gave customers the opportunity to customize their Trek bike by selecting
the bike’s paint scheme and component mix.
Hoping to expand into a new market segment, Trek introduced Trek Travel in
December 2002, a provider of luxury and performance cycling vacations in Europe
and North America. Trek Travel operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Trek
Bicycle until January 2007, when Trek spun off its interests in the company.
Despite the split, Trek and Trek Travel enjoy a close working relationship.
In 2003, Trek acquired Villiger, a Swiss bicycle company, and Diamant, the oldest
bicycle company in Germany. The acquisition gave Trek a foothold in the
active-leisure bicycle market, an important segment in Europe. As part of
the acquisition, Trek took over ownership of the Villiger-Diamant
production facility in Hartmannsdorf, Germany. Trek’s global expansion
continued in 2005, when Trek expanded into the Chinese market by opening two
stores in Beijing and signing deals with 20 Chinese distributors.
For the third time in its history, in 2005 Trek again expanded its worldwide
headquarters in Waterloo, adding another 43,000 sq ft to house its burgeoning
engineering, R&D, and marketing departments. As part of the expansion,
Trek included an atrium exhibit to display a number of historically
significant bikes from Trek’s family of brands, including one of the first
mountain bikes ever built by Gary Fisher, and seven bikes used by Lance
during his historic Tour de France run. = 2006–present=
After years of behind-the-scenes support for the League of American Bicyclists
and the Bikes Belong Coalition, Trek announced its 1 World 2 Wheels bicycle
advocacy campaign at its annual Trek World dealer convention in Madison,
Wisconsin. Central to 1 World 2 Wheels is its “Go By Bike” initiative, which
urges Americans to ride their bikes instead of drive their cars for trips of
two miles or less. Through 1 World 2 Wheels Trek also pledged $1,000,000 to
help fund the League of American Bicyclists’ “Bicycle Friendly Community”
program and committed $600,000 to the International Mountain Bicycling
Association’s Trail Solutions Services. On January 6, 2014, Trek announced the
acquisition of the Electra Bicycle Company.
As from the 2014 season, Trek became the main sponsor of Pro Tour cycling team
Trek Factory Racing, a continuation of its bike sponsorship of Team RadioShack
and co-sponsorship of Team Leopard-Trek. 2014 Unified hour record
In 2014, the UCI unified the two classifications into a single
classification in line with regulations for current track pursuit bikes.
Following the change in the rules, German Jens Voigt became the first rider
to attempt the hour record, on 18 September 2014 at the Velodrome Suisse,
Grenchen, Switzerland on a Trek bicycle. He set a new record of 51.110 km,
beating the previous record set by Sosenka by 1.410 km.
Products = Eco-friendly products=
For the year 2010, Trek teamed with multiple suppliers to provide
eco-friendly products. This includes brand new bikes that are economically
priced and are made out of steel. Steel is an easier material to obtain and
recycle. Also, Trek is starting to provide bike shops with funds to start
recycling old tubes to be sent to Alchemy Goods in Seattle, Washington, to
be made into bags, seat bags, and panniers.
= Bontrager= Bontrager branded products include
helmets, tires, wheels, handlebars, stems, seatposts, saddles, electronics
and cycling shoes. = LeMond brand=
The relationship between Trek and Tour-de-France winner Greg LeMond went
back to at least 1995 when LeMond licensed Trek to produce LeMond branded
bicycles. According to Trek, "In 1999, the LeMond line was one of the fastest
growing road bike brands and one of the top five largest road bike brands in the
United States". In March 2008, LeMond Cycling Inc
prepared a suit against Trek, accusing it of bowing to pressure from "third
parties" to "wind down" his brand through lack of distribution and
promotion, especially in the European market. The complaint also says that
"Since 2001, Trek has systematically sought to silence Mr. LeMond's right to
make comments that constitute an informed and honest opinion on matters
of legitimate public interest – the problems associated with the use of
performance enhancing substances". The complaint includes examples of Trek
threatening its ties with LeMond in 2001 and 2004 after he made public statements
against doping, Michele Ferrari, and Lance Armstrong
Trek responded in April 2008 by suing to sever business ties with LeMond. Trek's
press release said that "LeMond’s suit was characterized by Burke as containing
false and irresponsible allegations ". Burke also said "for years, Greg LeMond
has done and said things that have damaged the LeMond brand and the Trek
brand as a whole". . . . "His actions are inconsistent with our values—values
we believe in and live everyday. And after years of trying to make it work,
we are done." The suit was settled out of court in 2010.
Brands The Trek Bicycle Corporation consists of
several brands: Trek Bikes
Electra Bicycle Company Klein Bikes
LeMond Racing Cycles Gary Fisher Bikes
Diamant Bikes Villiger Bikes
Bontrager parts Trek's in-house parts and accessories
Models Trek 520 - a popular touring bicycle.
Trek Madone - a popular racing bicycle. Notes and references
External links Trek official site
Electra Bike Official Site Klein official site
Gary Fisher Official Site Diamant Official Site
Villiger Official Site Bontrager Official Site
Vintage Trek site Museum of Mountain Bike Art & Technology
– Trek Mountain Bike History Trek Y-foil site