Friday, December 01, 2006

Trek 69er: A Case of White Elephant?

Back in August, I wrote a post on my reaction to the Trek "69er" that was introduced at the Trek dealer show. Needless to say, I thought then, and still do, that Trek made a huge mistake by not offering a full on 29"er, or at least a single speed more befitting the culture of single speed and the heritage of Trek and Bontrager. By forging ahead with the "69er" concept, I feel that Trek has unnecessarily limited their appeal in the marketplace and additionally made things hard on themselves with the original $1700.00 price point.

Original? Yep! They changed the price. To a whopping $2399.99!! For a single speed mountain bike? Wow! I think somebody at Trek needs to maybe re-think this model a bit. I mean, I could buy two Carver single speed 69ers for that price. What does the Trek model have that Carver doesn't? Besides a long wait time for availability, that is.

I'm thinking white elephant here folks. A seriously huge, ginormous, stinking white elephant. I'm not even going to touch upon how goofy the whole 69"er thing is. This project is crazy enough from a whole list of other angles. I still can not get over that price hike. That's the nail in the coffin for me!

Once more, I say that Trek is absolutely looney for not making a steel hard tail Single Track series 29"er, or at least a 26"er single speed. That's Trek's heritage, that's Trek's calling card, that's single speed culture. Not this "beer can" technology, bling-bling, half and half, overpriced exercise in futility called a "69er". Somebody pull this embarassment outta the catalog....please! No offense to Travis Brown, who digs on this concept, but this isn't the way to do it, and especially not for that much scratch.

Rant mode off! Now for some Trans Iowa V3 news! I am proud to announce three new sponsors to the event. Twin Six, the cycling clothing alternative, The 12 Hours of Blue Mound, and Paddy's Preem, a preem for a case of Guiness to the first competitor to reach the first town out on T.I. this year. Thanks everyone! Remember, registration ends December 15th! Get those Post cards in NOW! At the rate they are coming in, we will have well beyond 2000 post cards in the lottery. Thanks to those who have already entered!

And finally.....I am in the process of working out the details on a 29"er Meet Up ride. More details to come!

Be careful if you are riding outside! Dress accordingly and take care! But ride your bike, definitely ride!

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