[binary visions]

If a fairly small company like Yeti can develope something like the 303 design, why can't Trek?

Yeti has been entrenched in the DH/FR market for years. They know they can make a living at it. They have a racing team and years of market research. They have the Yeti brand, that people would buy even if it were a flaming bag of poo with a damper squished into it.

Yeti didn't enter the market with a new design. They entered the market like everyone else enters a market - with a proven suspension design.

SC has freaking made a living off the VPP design which really isn't significantly different in performance than a good 4 bar design...

But again, SC had a solid market offering for years before they got into this VPP stuff.

Just kinda hoping for something more if only for selfish-tech geek reasons and nothing else...

...I hope you don't think, by my comments, that I wouldn't love to see a huge company like Trek invest a ton of R&D into something new

 

[hooples3]

i was looking at that trek for a while too. I decided to go for the new VP-free instead, i am a huge santacruz fan. i also like the Norco dh bike... it just felt right. try as many bikes as you can before buying. i based my buying on how i felt on the bike.

 

[ChrisRobin]

But before every big company apologist lables me as a 'Trek hater' or 'Specialized hater', or whatever, I'll simply say that is just not the case...Like OG said, I don't give a damn who makes the bike, as long as it works and doesn't break in normal conditions within 6 months of purchase...But there's almost always a vehement reaction whenever says anything less-then-wonderful about a big bike company product...Yes, sometimes people get caught up in the anti-establishment fervor, but there's also many people who are just giving their honest opinion regardless of manufacturer...

Good points...

The problem is when people straight out say: "that's a piece of crap." No tact, no intelligence behind it. That's when Ridemonkey people get all hot and bothered including myself.

 

[OGRipper]

i based my buying on how i felt on the bike.

Not to diss my brothers, but this is the smartest thing in this thread so far.

As for Trek, I think they needed a solid design to prove they can be a contender in the DH/FR scene - that they can make a pretty cool bike that works and is durable. I see the 77 as the first salvo in what could be a pretty exciting division for Trek...they probably have real concerns as to whether the "core" crowd will ever buy a Trek - a concern that seems legit based on some of the comments here. And who knows what they already have in development?

Anyway, ride what you like, not what someone tells you is cool.

 

[ChrisRobin]

Not to diss my brothers, but this is the smartest thing in this thread so far.

As for Trek, I think they needed a solid design to prove they can be a contender in the DH/FR scene - that they can make a pretty cool bike that works and is durable. I see the 77 as the first salvo in what could be a pretty exciting division for Trek...they probably have real concerns as to whether the "core" crowd will ever buy a Trek - a concern that seems legit based on some of the comments here. And who knows what they already have in development?

Anyway, ride what you like, not what someone tells you is cool.

I agree...

I think Trek is trying to make a careful 'jump' into the FR and DH world. They had moderate success with the Diesel which was supposedly an awesome frame. The first year the Bruiser hardtail came out, it flopped because (from what a Trek rep told me), it was the following year that all the FR hardtails came out: they were a year early from a marketing aspect. With this new DH frame, I'm figuring they wanted to release something that was wasn't 100% original yet still apply their own details...and Trek's details are usually pretty nice! That new DH bike looks like they're starting to raise the stakes and jump into full blown DH with something different.

 

[davetrump]

f**k who's name is on the thing.

that bike was designed from the ground up by andrew shandro. he wanted a bike that fit a few specific requirements. the ability to run a long travel single crown fork, and a front derailleur, and the ability to raise/lower the seatpost without interfearing with the suspension, as well as being strong enough to stand up to the kind of riding a pro rider can dish out. someone said the frame design was a "copy" or not "inovative", but to accomplish these other goals this is probably the best design to work with. he also wanted the geometry to be more suited to the speed at which a bike with this much suspension could be ridden. he was quoted in dirt as saying the most important things to him were botom bracket height and the head angle. the first prototype he hated, so trek refined it until they came up with this version.

i think it was zedro who said everyone gets confused by all the pivots and crap and forgets what is important... geometry and construction. this bike has a low bottom bracket, slack head angle, front derailleur, uniterupted seat tube so you can raise/lower the seat for different ridding, 1.5 headtube for single or dual crown forks, it is strong, and made in the usa.... yeah, i'd hit it.

hell, myles rockwell won worlds on a similar design by giant in 1999, and fabien barrel again on a kona in 2004... just more proof that you do not need to reinvent the wheel to make a solid, well ridding bicycle.

it seems to many people on here are more concerned with nit picking every aspect of a bike apart (even better, speculating on bikes they have never ridden or seen in person)... except the parts that actually matter.

 

[Cant Climb]

i think it was zedro who said everyone gets confused by all the pivots and crap and forgets what is important... geometry and construction.

it seems to many people on here are more concerned with nit picking every aspect of a bike apart (even better, speculating on bikes they have never ridden or seen in person)... except the parts that actually matter.

Amen.

 

[zedro]

Hell, scratch a fat check to Zedro and use his file cabinet design (obviously slimmed down for FR purposes)

lol