The bikes of Hell: George Hincapie's Discovery Channel Trek Paris-Roubaix special, April 8, 2006
The culprit?
Scott Daubert: One thing I forgot to tell you about is that George is running with a different fork; it has a longer axle to crown dimension, and it has a longer rake than the normal Bontrager Race Lite fork.
CN: Is this something new you'll bring into the Trek line?
SD: No, it's actually from Bontrager's Satellite line, almost from their commuter level, but it has dimensions that are appropriate for Roubaix. It's an in-house made fork, made at Trek from OCLV carbon, it's just on a different model bike.
CN: Is it a steel steerer?
SD: No, it's aluminium; it's been blasted then anodized black.
www.cyclingnews.com/road/200...oubaix06/
The culprit?
Scott Daubert: One thing I forgot to tell you about is that George is running with a different fork; it has a longer axle to crown dimension, and it has a longer rake than the normal Bontrager Race Lite fork.
CN: Is this something new you'll bring into the Trek line?
SD: No, it's actually from Bontrager's Satellite line, almost from their commuter level, but it has dimensions that are appropriate for Roubaix. It's an in-house made fork, made at Trek from OCLV carbon, it's just on a different model bike.
CN: Is it a steel steerer?
SD: No, it's aluminium; it's been blasted then anodized black.
www.cyclingnews.com/road/200...oubaix06/
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Re: Prototype nightmare?
04/11absolutely the culprit.
and hardly a prototype - its this fork:
bontrager.com/Road/Compon...rks/5808.php
just painted to match his bike, and with the steerer blasted and anodized for some unknown reason...
a lazy fix, if you ask me. george deserves better. but then, i wouldnt have sent him out with the fancy-schmancy carbon wheels either. standard spoked box section rims! non-catastrophic failure mode! sheesh :) its not like trekbontragerkleinlemond has the capability to make george a custom fork or anything... -
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Re: Prototype nightmare?
04/20nah!
they called to me if they could put him on my bike, but I told them I was using it then. They said they'd go with off-the-shelf, mid-level parts to retro-fit instead. -
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Re: Prototype nightmare?
12/12Next year George is riding my trek 500. Reynolds 501 should survive a lot of cobles.
Seriously, I was reading the web site of a German guy who commutes and by cycle and goes on fast club rides. When the club rides are on coblestones, the people with steel bikes leave the people on carbon or aluminum behind. (this may have as much or more to do with design as material. Steel bikes generally have smaller tubes, and in many cases longer stays, that give a more flexible bike from any material) But I don't think trek makes a steel road bike these days.
But why does trek or any bike maker sponsor racing? Advertising and, to a lesser extent, testing. If you wanna be like Lance, or now George, buy a Trek! A broken steerer isn't good advertising, but they'll surely do a careful study of the steerer, and maybe improve it, or decide it was bad judgement to continue on that bike after the earlier crash. I'm of the opinion they should have put George on a spare bike asap after he crashed, even if it looked ok. Monday morning quarterback.
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