To get value for their money, mountain bikers pay more attention to a bike’s frame. And thankfully, Trek Company has maintained brand image over the years by investing heavily in their frameset. This article contains everything you should learn about trek frame.
- Part 1: Does Trek Make Its Own Frame
- Part 2: Can You Buy a Trek Frame That’s Not Listed on Their Product Line Up
- Part 3: About Trek Carbon Bike Frame
- Part 4: Other Impressive Features of Trek Frames
- Part 5: Does Trek Use Aluminum Frames Too
Part 1: Does Trek Make Its Own Frame
Kudos to Trek management, the company has been able to sustain riders’ interest by making quality business decisions. In the bike world, a company does not need to produce every component of their product. As a matter of fact, they can outsource some of these components and only major in assemblage.
Right from time, Trek Company has realized the importance of specialization. With extensive research, Trek has been able to gather enough facts on the demands and preference of riders. Hence, the company engages the service of top manufacturers, Giant, to make their trek frames.
Located in Taiwan, China and the Netherlands, Giant has an enviable craft in making bike frames for several other bike companies. Now, here’s how the business arrangement works. Trek conducts its own market research and sends their specifications to Giant. The latter then gets the appropriate materials, manufactures the bike frames and sends them back to Trek. That’s a smart move, right?
And sometimes, Trek could use a Chinese firm called Quest Composite Technology depending on their trek frame needs. All in all, quality cannot be compromised.
Part 2: Can You Buy a Trek Frame That’s Not Listed on Their Product Line Up
Nothing lasts forever and so are Trek bikes too. trek frame is bound to get weak after long usage. And it’s likely that you’d want to change to new frames.
First off, you should bear in mind that Trek does not offer all bike frames in their product lineups. So, you have to ensure that your preferred trek frame is available for purchase. And this policy is exactly the same at local bike stores. Unlike other minor bike components that could be sold in bits, bike shops cannot sell trek frame alone. They have to buy a whole bike and it would not be business-smart for them to sell detached bike frames.
Part 3: About Trek Carbon Bike Frame
With over 25 years of experience, Trek is really the grandmaster of bike manufacturers. Particularly, the company uses carbon frames. And this is the result of years of research and sourcing the finest production materials.
Carbon frames are the best because they are the lightest but strongest frames. In fact, they are the stiffest and most attractive. You might want to say that carbon fiber frames are not peculiar to only Trek. Of course, you may be right. But Trek carbon frames are way more unique. Trek’s seat and head posts are separated from the rest of the bike using the IsoSpeed frameset. Further, the company goes an extra mile in providing internal cable routing and storage units which are are fixed to the frame itself.
For the finest production, Trek MTB frame is patented as OCLV meaning Optimum Compaction Low Void. To give you a better understanding of the OCLV process, let’s consider two major subheadings.
Optimum Compaction: Carbon usually comes in large sheets. Therefore, it’s essential that they are cut into smaller and specific shapes. Once this is done, carbon is placed into a mold, and the sheets are usually compressed into carbon lug with the help of heat and pressure.
Low Void: More voids equal poor strength and reduced bike durability. Hence, the best approach is to reduce the spaces between layers of carbon in the manufacturing process. Above all other features, Trek’s OCLV carbon matches aerospace standards, and it provides for better bike responsiveness.
Part 4: Other Impressive Features of Trek Frames
The Essence Of Shapes
On top of feather weight feature, Trek carbon fiber frames are easily molded into different shapes. Thus, there are several frames to choose from depending on strength and stiffness. Additionally, Trek bikes are designed with the aid of computers, and this eventually translates to perfectly designed trek frames.
Design Geometry and Overall Feel
No two riders are the same. Just like we’ve got tall riders, there are many riders with short height all around the world. Hence, it is only necessary that these riders get suitable bikes that match their size, height, sex and feel. And this decision is usually made by evaluating frame geometry.
Geometry evaluation can be complex and tiring especially when tube length is used to determine the appropriate geometry for a rider. But big thanks to Trek; the process is now simpler than ever. Trek frame comes with alpha sizing, thereby allowing riders to choose either small, medium or large frames. In essence, riders have access to a full range of options.
Part 5: Does Trek Use Aluminum Frames Too
Trek is not only experts in carbon frames. The company also makes ultra-light weight aluminum frames. To produce aesthetically pleasing frames, Trek uses the Invisible Weld Technology. What this implies is that riders and onlookers will not have to see welded joints.
To be candid, a mountain bike should not only be rugged. It is equally important that premium bikes should be clean without welding blemish. In the end, the invisible weld technology not only decreases weight, it also improves the bike’s structural integrity. In order to make it easier when welding tubes to frames, the engineers form pressurized tube shapes that can fit perfectly.
Moreover, Trek’s engineers use less weld material to decrease bike weight. And this in turn increases the strength and durability of bikes in return. This also allows the frame to have larger continuous surface areas.
To Sum Up
Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. Compared to other forms of biking, mountain riders have to move along rough and sometimes hostile terrains. And this usually results in unpleasant experience for the riders.
To manage this reality, Trek engineers have come up with the Carbon armor. The essence of this innovation is to reduce impact of shock to a bike’s frame. So, the direct impact of a rough hit does not affect the frame instantly. There is only an even distribution of the shock, and you can enjoy smoother mountain biking adventure.
