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Trek specials: Belt drive 'crosser prototype gets a run out + Big Apple Madone

Trek specials

Rooting around for pics of the prototype X0B belt drive 'crosser (see below) on Trek's website we came across this…
The Big Apple Madone a specially tricked out (well paint-wise) bike for Lance who spends a lot of time in New York these days and is well known for his famous alleged apples-related put down of Jan Ullrich – which gets a reference on the bike. Although they are at pains to stress that this bike is not for sale (and that the paint job won't be an option either) this might give a hint of what is to come in Trek's Project One, a new system by which the company hopes to able to offer Madone buyers the option to customise the paint job on their bikes. Once the potentially fearsome logistics of this have been worked out the program will be rolled out first in the US, and then in Europe. More Madone Big Apple pics

Trek took the opportunity offered by the Interbike Cyclo Cross to test out this little beauty, a belt drive X0 'cross bike, the X0B.
Apparently Trek are looking for different ways of applying belt drive technology - it's already on some of their '09 commuting bikes, this they stress is very much a prototype just to see exactly what the belt is capable of. Applications are going to need to be singlespeed, or possibly run off hub gears for the time being. The X0 cross prototye has tension adjusters built into the dropouts to accommodate different gear choices. Trek's test pilot, Travis Brown selected his gear after inspecting the course.
According to Trek's website “The bike was built off a standard XO2 platform and had the rear dropouts and chainstays replaced to accommodate the belt.  The chainstays are off a Trek T900 tandem; their heavier gauge minimizes lateral flex and compression loads that could make the belt skip”. Can't find any mention of Travis on the Cross Vegas results sheet, but then it is only an experiment.

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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the-daily-ripper | 15 years ago
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That NYC trek is beautiful. Hmmm, custom paint jobs on a carbon bike. Methinks I might start saving now...

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thebikeboy replied to the-daily-ripper | 15 years ago
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… not sure about that particular paint job though. That said those new Madone's are really nice looking bikes - some of the earlier versions looked a bit odd IMO. Mind you, maybe one of the reasons I like the new Madone is that it does have a certain look of Orbea's Orca about it, particularly around the top of the seat tube.

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purplecup | 15 years ago
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Belt drive around town i can kind of understand, but belt drive off-road? one of the great things about a chain is that the teeth effectively clean it by pushing mud through the holes. There's no holes in a belt: where will the mud go?

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