More Training Camp Prep

The prep for training camp continues.  Getting everything to camp was just he beginning.  I met the Truck that was full of all of the equipment and clothing for training on Saturday.  We immediately unloaded the semi into a mobile storage container.

Moving boxes from one place to another is teidious work, we then had to move the boxes into the hotel so we could sort them.  There are roughly 68 people working with the Astana Team, each person recieved 20 items of casual clothing and each of the 30 riders receive a full bag of race clothing.  Let the sorting begin.....

We sorted clothing for a solid 4 days.  I am happy to be done with that!  Mean while the mechanics were all busy working on the bikes.  In 4 days we sorted all of the clothing and built 45 bikes.  I can't say that I was a major part of that success other than coordinating the delivery but I do feel good about what was accomplished.  Let the riding begin......

P-One update 2.0

More on the P-One situation.  Trek plans to turn on P-One with the new Madone in late summer. One of the driving factors in this delay is that we have chosen to fill standard Madone back orders before we started offering custom painted Madones.  If we turn on P-One today, it will further delay the delivery of standard bikes that customers have already paid for.

The good news is that Trek's production of Madone bikes has never been higher.  We are shipping more product than ever before.

The new Madone set a new level of what you should expect in a road bike.  Its balanced design incorporates beauty, ride feel, unmatched stability, light weight and second-to-none technology and is worth the wait.

Madone 6.9 hits the scales

Here are some weights for the Madone 6.9 bikes.

http://mattmagee.blogspot.com/2008/01/11708-new-trek-madone-69-now-here.html

Matt Magee

64cm Madone

Here are the facts on 64cm Madone bikes:

• Madone 5.1 bikes in size 64cm sold out very quickly.  Admittedly, Trek underestimated the demand for big bikes.  We won't do that again and plan to expand the line in 2009.  We are not doing another production run of 2008 64cm Madones.
• The 5.1 was replaced with the 4.7, both having similar component spec.  The reason the 5.1 is still on the trekbikes.com site is because we still have 5.1 bikes in smaller sizes in stock.
• 5.5 Madone bikes were originally slated to be OCLV White carbon but have since been upgraded to OCLV Black.  5.5 Madones are still available.
• Trek chooses to manufacture the most common size frames before the less common sizes.  Hence, sizes 47cm and 64cm bikes will always be available after 56cm or 58cm bikes.
• Trek is the only company successfully making a full carbon bike in size 64cm.
• By late summer you will be able to custom build your 64cm bike in Project One.  That means you choose the color and part spec in addition to getting a bike that finally fits your above average height.

Astana Milestone - Equipment Shipment

Trek Professional Teams' Liaison Ben Coates pulled off the near impossible this week.  He corralled hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of team clothing, Bontrager components and Trek frames, put it all on a semi-tractor trailer truck then pointed the Trek west towards the team camp in Albuquerque, NM.

It's been an enormous task to get a world-class team set up with all new gear.  Ben had to assemble a crew of designers, painters, engineers and component buyers to get things done.  The events that have happened here at Trek over the past 6 months are appreciated by the Astana team but few really know what it took to get this to happen.  Bravo, Ben.

Ben will meet up with the truck early next week at about the same time that the Astana team staff arrives.  The mechanics will start assembling bikes and the soigneurs will sort the clothing.  Ben should have more inside info during the camp so check his blog out when you can.

The truck.

The gear (that's Trek engineer Mark Andrews double checking some frame parts).

Loading up.

Securing the load.

After the truck set sail for NM, Ben threw a beer and pizza party for the crew that helped him pull the delivery off. 

The Project-One painters check out an Astana TTX.

The crew that made the delivery of Astana team parts possible.  Thanks guys!

Readers on the TeamEstrogen.com Forums like the Madone

Madone 6 series bikes are receiving rave reveiws.  Click here to read some comments on a 6.5 WSD Madone.

Seat cap continuous improvement

I gave out some misleading information associated with the continuous improvements made to the 2008 Madone's seat cap design.  I want to set the record straight.

Visually, the difference is that the newer cap has a painted clamp and the carbon portion of the cap is now 10mm longer.  The added length allows for a broader range of height adjustment.  The added length applies to both the standard and long caps and to all three seat offset options.

The new black clamp is also positioned at 90 degrees to the cap (not angled like the original) so the clamp is more effective.  This 90 degree repositioning decreased the torque required to keep the cap in place.  The clamp bolts are now torqued to 5-7 N*m.

The section width of the revised clamp is 15mm narrower on the new clamp so rider's legs have even more room.

These revisions went into place in September of 2007 and were on sale to consumers in October of 2007. 

The internal dimensions of the older and newer cap are the same.  The caps are interchangeable, the clamps are not.  Trek dealers are not exchanging old for new but new caps can be purchased individually.

Hope this info answers any questions you have.

Above is the new clamp design.  Below is the old.

Timex's Tim Hola interview on slowtwitch.com

Read about one of Timex's top amateur athletes, Tim Hola, on slowtwitch.com.  2008 will be Tim's 6th year on the Timex team.  He competes on a Trek Equinox 9.9.

Project One update

The release of the new Project One site has been delayed.  No new date has been set yet.  Making a Best in Class custom bike program takes time.  Thanks for your patience.

What size Madone for Franck?

     Fitting a road bike to the rider has become more of a science than ever, yet there is still plenty of art in a good fit. It may take some time, but once a rider has a good fit, maintaining the same fit on a new bike is critical. How do you tell what size new bike can achieve the desired fit? For example, what size stem and how many spacers are needed?

     One way to think of the task is to divide the dimensions into two categories: frame dimensions, and rider dimensions. The frame dimensions describe how long the seat tube and top tube are, etc. and the rider dimensions describe where the rider contacts the bike such as seat height and setback, reach and drop to the bars, etc. The rider’s fit is correctly maintained on any frame if other components such as seat post, stem, etc. properly bridge from the frame dimensions to correctly meet the rider dimensions.

     If you know your rider dimensions and have frame dimensions to compare, then you can choose between different frame sizes and predict what size components are needed (seat post, stem and spacers, etc.). If the component sizes are reasonable then the rider’s position can be duplicated on the new frame. Unfortunately, making the comparison isn’t trivial, since some of the dimensions aren’t purely vertical or horizontal, and it also seems more difficult these days now that head tubes are extended sometimes, top tubes sometimes slope and different brands measure their frames in different ways. However, if you have a CAD package and enough dimensions you can draw in the frame and rider dimensions and find out the component sizes that might complete the fit.

     Below is an example from Franck, who had his fit professionally determined to establish his rider dimensions. I used these dimensions to find out what size Madone might work well for Franck.

     Based first on his desired seat height (845 mm), and by refering to the Madone’s seat height table, Franck could consider either a 62 or 64 cm Madone. He’ll need the optional tall seat cap. (The green line is for a different rider, not Franck.)

 

     For the handlebar position, I used SolidWorks to make a sketch of Franck’s bike and rider dimensions.As you can see from the drawings, I’ve used the bottom bracket as “home base” and positioned Franck’s saddle and handlebar clamp according to the rider dimensions from his fitter. I also used the Madone’s geometry table to sketch in a few frame dimensions.

     Looks like Franck could comfortably ride a 64 cm Madone in a Performance fit. He could try a 130 or 140 mm stem angled down, using about 25 mm of spacers (including the head set top cap).

     I also tried the frame dimensions of a 62 cm Madone, which could fit Franck with 44 mm of spacers (including headset top cap) if the stem also became longer: 145 mm – not a commonly available length! So in a Madone at least, a 64 looks best for Franck.

As always, questions and comments are welcome!

Damon Rinard