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.
Trek specials: Belt drive ‘crosser prototype gets a run out + Big Apple Madone
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I'm a bit on the fence. Currently riding a gravel bike with a Force AXS XPLR groupset, Favero assioma pro powermeter pedals, Garmin varia rear light, lupine front light, Edge 1040. That's a lot of batteries to keep track of, to the point that I have a dedicated charger with 3 m USB-C cable in my office, another one at home. Can't imagine having to deal with another battery such as on the Flight Attendant. BUT....everything's dead easy to set up, no cables to route through the frame, no cable stretch, no derailleur adjustment.....
I saw a similar incident a few years back at the British Champs. Dad and son crossing the road ar the bottom of Saltburn Bank, presumably to get to the beach. Dad made a dash for it leaving the son in the middle of the road. Top parenting. Luckily it was just a solo breakaway rider so easily avoided disaster. It's not like there's not enough warning. Police motorcycles whizzing past sirens blaring. It's just impatience / entitlement.
Very poor from the organisers, as the resident said, "There's always one" and yes, there always will be one, often a confused elderly person lacking the capacity to understand the consequences of their actions, and so you have to fully barrier crossing points in that sort of situation and have marshals in charge of opening and closing. It's very lucky we're not talking about serious injury or death.
Mr Loophole doesn't understand physics or how to drive properly. Speed, as all cyclists know, is related to the amount of power being input and gear selection. If only drivers could understand this.
“What about all the trade that was lost because people could not get to park?” What about all the extra visitors that arrived just for the race? Maybe thats why there was also a lack of parking. Skeg vegas is hardly the most popular out of season destination
I used to say that mechanical shifting was so much better because it was serviceable on the roadside and you could buy a spare derailleur or shifter in the remotest shop on the continent. Oh, how wrong I was proven later, with all the recent standards and pull ratios...
20 MPH speed limits: Killing pedestrians and cyclists is bad for their brains.
@AidanR He'd already got a full house ("only where it makes sense e.g. outside schools" / "blanket limits" / "unsafe") BUT not only didn't he call but he went for another round! And with a fascinating new angle: Totally on-trend there! Reducing the maximum speed in some places in urban areas is psychological discrimination! Won't you think of the neurodiverse? Don't you know you can literally measure the rise in cortisol due to the presence of cyclists? In fact unfairly favouring active travel is literally sucking the dopamine out of everyone's lives...
@Mr Blackbird I see the pro-cycling crowd is out with false plates - further confusing the locals. I thought that was because they were all taking the knee or being used to ferry illegal asylum seekers between crimes and/or sex reassignments? Keep up!
"TfL has now suspended more than £2 million in funding towards the borough until it pays back the £234,917...." I wonder if Mayor Jason Perry will be making a video about him having a ceremonial handing over of a comedy cheque for £234,917 to TfL? That'll really impress the voters. Not to mention how much it cost to remove the cycle lanes, still, it's only taxpayers' money, not his. The tories seem intent on proving that they're even stupider than Refuk, and given the news yesterday, that's a pretty high bar.
3 thoughts on “Trek specials: Belt drive ‘crosser prototype gets a run out + Big Apple Madone”
Muddy belt drive?
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?
That NYC trek is beautiful.
That NYC trek is beautiful. Hmmm, custom paint jobs on a carbon bike. Methinks I might start saving now…
The trek is beautiful but
… 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.