TREK BICYCLES

June 9, 2006

The ferry ride across Lake Michigan was quite pleasant.  It took 4 hours and we had breakfast, strolled around the deck, watched some tv, napped, and studied various brochures about Wisconsin.

When we arrived in Wisconsin we picked up our car and headed south to Waterloo, WI. 

The next day we went to the Friday factory tour of TREK Bicycles. This is the company that sponsored DJ in his cycling career for several years.

The TREK factory is very large, much larger than I expected, and modern.  The tour started off with the wall of TREK history.  The start of the company in a barn in Waterloo, and major events in the life of the company are displayed in photos, bicycles, and a brief writeup.  Next we went to look at the Lance Armstrong wall, which is nicely put together.  There is a large wall-sized panel for each year he won the Tour de France.  Autographed winner’s jerseys, photos and the actual bike he rode were on display there.

Next we toured the offices where the engineers, designers, and marketers work.  The company is young and vibrant.  Most of the people we saw were young and all seemed interested and enthusiastic in what they were doing.

I was very impressed when we entered the manufacturing floor.  Although TREK, as most manufacturing companies these days, has most of its product manufactured offshore, the high-end bikes are still manufactured right in Waterloo.  We were able to learn about the way the frame tubing is manufactured, cut and shaped.  A laser is used to cut the metal rather than a saw because the strength of the metal is maintained.  We saw the lasing process.  We followed the process through the factory and saw several parts of the frame being manufactured, and then assembled and brazed, glued or welded.

Throughout the factory safety, quality and performance were measured with charts and graphs.  Safety is paramount at the company and this is obvious in every step.  Quality checks are performed at each step. High standards are met,

Eventually we saw the completed frames, all finished and checked, hanging on a rack.  A final check was made, and then each frame was put on a conveyer and sent to the paint department.  Many custom paint styles are available and after the frames are painted additional decals and paint designs are put on by hand.  Again the basic paint job is quality checked, and then the detailing is also checked.  Anything that is not perfect is rejected, sandblasted and repainted.  The room full of finished frames is beautiful.

As we were walking along on the tour a friend of DJ’s, (Mike Zeigle) came out of the Prototype Development with one of the frames DJ had ridden and said Hi to us showed the frame to our tour group.  So, after the tour Don went back to the design department and had a nice visit with a few of the people who knew DJ during his racing career.