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news
Trek Demo SaleTrek UK Demo Sale website goes live
Trek UK have launched a new website today devoted to selling off their showroom, demo and test bikes. The Trek Demo Sale website has gone live with six bikes, with many more to be added over the next few weeks.
"Running demos and sending out bikes to media for review creates a pretty long list of bikes that need a new home when they get returned to us," they told us. "Until now, these bikes have been living in boxes in the warehouse. The demo sale site is a simple solution to a growing issue. It allows riders to save some cash on a bike that might not be box fresh, but will still carry a bit of a warranty. It gives us somewhere to list the huge variety of bikes we have here and it fosters a relationship between the buyer, and their local Trek retailer. Everyone wins."
There's some good deals to be had on there for launch, especially if you're a lady looking for a full on race rig. The Madone 6.9SSL WSD on the site (52cm) is down from £6,750 to £4,000; still eye-watering but a hefty discount and it's not even been ridden. Some bikes, like the Madone, have just been on display at shows and dealers. Others are ex-demo and have been available to ride either at Trek dealers or on Trek Demo Days around the country. They'll vary in their condition, although it's fair to say that no demo bike will have had an especially high mileage. Then there's media bikes that Trek have loaned out to the likes of us to have a go on. This Trek Madone six series sitting by the desk will probably end up on there once we get round to boxing it up. If you notice one that has Vredestein tyres on, rather than the stock Bontys, then that's likely to be the actual bike that Mat tested. You may or may not think that's a good thing…
If you want to get hold of one of the bikes then it's a bit more of an involved process than just handing over your card details and waiting for the postie, but it's simple enough. Trek UK's policy is to work exclusively through their dealer network, which means that any bike sold on the site will be delivered to a local dealer rather than directly to you. It'll get a full pre-delivery inspection before you get to ride it away, too. Contact details for enquiring about the bikes are on the site.
Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.
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20 comments
Apologies if it was condescending, that wasn't my intention. To me your comments appear to be(quite understandably) coloured by your current position.
I guess there is quite a gulf between our points of view, though I always try to be open-minded.
Apology accepted.
My comments are coloured, and the simple reason for that is due to the fact that I'm on this side of the fence. My intention is to provide some perspective on what things look like from our side, because at the end of the day, we do have a side. There's a lot that I don't know, and there are some things I can't talk about. The main point I'd like to make, is that 'things aren't always as they appear' definitely applies here.
We certainly benefited from Lance riding our products, and being so visible. That's true. When early signs started surfacing, there was a very different context happening at the time, and public opinion, and that of our customers more importantly, was still very much in the Lance camp. Same with Nike. Same with Oakley, etc. This is what was happening when the Lemond comments were made back in 2004, or whenever it was exactly. We had loads of retailers screaming at us that he was hurting their ability to sell Lemond bikes, and threatening to pull all of their business. This was the difficult position we were in that I mentioned earlier. At the end of the day, it's our customers (the retailers) that guide most of our decisions. Without them, we don't exist.
You'd be surprised at how many people gave us a dressing down when we made the announcement that we were ending our sponsorship with Lance.
I'm perfectly happy to have a discussion with you, Simon, but I would prefer that it be done in the absence of condescension, please. I've been in this industry a long time, and although I enjoy working for Trek, I haven't entirely lost my ability to remain objective.
TrekBikesUK - thanks for coming into the forum, and trying to be open and engage in this way. I've read many similar conversations along the lines of "all roadies now laugh at Trek owners" and its good to hear your take on this.
I'm a Trek owner - bought a Madone 4.5 in the summer (from down the road from your HQ at corleys), and its awesome. Love it in everyway. When Lance was subsequently outed, did I put the bike away? hell no. did i shy away from other riders for fear of mocking? nope - same as most riders do, some come up and say "hey, nice bike" as i would do with others, regardless of brand.
When there was an issue with the new bike, trek UK resolved it quickly and threw in upgraded tyres to boot. At no point did they throw in any Lance-approved EPO or what have you!
Yes, Trek were associated with Lance, but most riders are going to look at a bike on its own merits. The madone fitted me great, was good spec, looked the part, and the reviews from road.cc and others were very high - at no point did i think about Lance in the buying process...he's not gonna ride it, I am.
But enough of that - its good to see Trek offering cheaper opportunity to buy nearly-new bikes. Would be good to see other brands do the same.
Hi Neily.
Thanks for your comments. It's always nice to hear when someone is enjoying their bike.
Keep an eye on the demo site, as we'll be updating it regularly. We have another batch of bikes to load in today.
Out of interest, does anyone know of anyone who has stopped riding their bike because of Lance Armstrong?
If you do, point them at rule #5. k thx
So that's millions of people who started, or continued riding bikes. How is that a bad thing? And what company do you know of that hasn't used their highest profile sponsored athletes in their marketing efforts? It's only in hindsight that people are being critical of the fact that Lance was so much a part of our road branding.
I agree with you that we don't talk enough about our other stories. FYI, we do support the LCC. We also have an honorary position on the board of the Bicycle Association of GB, and every Trek purchase that a Trek UK employee makes includes a contribution to the Bike Hub.
I think given Lance's transgressions, people are too willing to write off how much his involvement in the sport elevated the profile of it. EVERYONE sold more bikes because of Lance, not just Trek.
He made the sport of cycling go from the periphery in the US, to being covered alongside baseball and football on ESPN. That's a big deal.
Yes, he lied. He cheated. He manipulated. People aren't going to stop riding bikes because of Lance. But many people started riding bikes because of him.
Did I say it was? A more important question is: are they still riding?
I would wonder why not if they didn't. But perhaps Trek tied themselves too closely with Armstrong.
Now there we must disagree. People were vocal about refusing to buy a Trek even in the early to mid-2000s, the only grounds being the association with Armstrong.
*sigh* God, this shouldn't be so hard! Look, he endorsed YOUR products, you will have to swim in the outfall for a while. Deal with it. I don't care about the profile about the sport, that's the sport's job. I care about having to explain doping/cheating in sport to my kids; the blank spaces in the winners' list of the Tour from 1999 to 2005; reading that sponsors won't support cycling because of doping.
But the fact is that their inspiration is founded on a lie. That's a hard pill for some to swallow. The task for those picking up the pieces is to learn from the experience. I can understand you are defensive of your brand but, unless you were one of the inner circle of decision-makers, I strongly suggest you recognise that there will be some brown stuff hitting the fan and that you can do nothing about it. It's not your fault, OK? You will impress me (and I'm sure a whole load of other people) if you let it go and focus your efforts on what you're going to do not defending what that bad apple did to the barrel.
UH OH.
YOU CAN NEVER WIN AN ARGUMENT ON THE INTERNETZ, BAD MOVE!
Some interesting comments on here today.
Not sure how we have been so tarnished, when Trek was certainly subjected to much of the same bullying as others were from a certain former racer. Quite a difficult position to be in. If this is because of the Lemond situation, then I would refer you to a story posted on this very website which includes a link to a presentation we gave to our retailers in 2008, explaining some of the chronology of events regarding Lemond, including the fact that he sued Trek twice (without merit) before the company took any action against him. In the meantime, we were growing his business by leaps and bounds.
As for laughing at anyone riding a Trek, that's a shame. It'd be interesting to hear who you think is creating more technologically advanced bikes on a large scale (which benefits everyone by upping the game), and who provides a lifetime warranty on those bikes, and which brand does more for cycling advocacy on a global scale, and who started a carbon recycling program (in the UK first, no less), and who only supports local merchants who are trying to improve their communities by not allowing the sales of products through mass merchants and online outlets.
Just sayin'.
Oh, come on, do I have to explain it? Lance sold thousands, no millions of Trek bikes. He was a marketing man's big-dollar wet dream. Did you not expect some collateral damage when the truth came out? It's a bit late claiming to be the victim now, Trek needs to learn a lesson and start afresh. Anyway, which Trek employees were 'forced' (yeah, right!) to take drugs, to lie and cheat?
I have no problem with anyone riding whatever make of bike they want; in an era of complex marketing methods and huge range of choices available to us we all make decisions based on emotional as well as rational criteria.
Since the presentation you mention will be the Trek corporation's version of events wouldn't it be a bit one-sided? I don't know how accurate this is but it's likely to be more objective:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeMond_Racing_Cycles#Conflicts_with_Armstro...
or this?
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/greg-lemond-lawsuit-trek-b...
And anyway, in America people sue each other for looking funny at their front lawn.
Perhaps if Trek had marketed their brand a little differently since 1999 we may be more aware of the advocacy, carbon recycling etc that you are proud of. I'd sooner see Trek associated with third world charities, CTC or London Cycling Campaign than some Texan gobshite who hasn't won any races worth a pinch of sh*t, those (IMHO) god-awful bikes Damien Hirst decorated.
A very fancy website seeing as they are only have six bikes up for sale at the moment.
I think a trek rebranding exercise will soon be announced.!
Would not touch a Trek with the proverbial bargepole. The company is badly tainted, not the fault of 99.9% of the employees granted but those who were part of the problem as far as I am aware have made no apology.
I would have to snigger at anyone riding a trek.
@zanf - no Trek discount for you then!
On their website, in the write up for the Madone 6.9 SSL WSD, they state:
All things considered, can they claim that still?
Well, the *bike* wasn't taking anything