1994 Trek 9800
1994 Trek 9800
A 1994 Trek 9800 mountain bike in Ice Green. According to Trek it was “So light it turned our competition Ice Green with envy”.
Doubtful.
In 1994 Trek was just scrambling to catch up with their competition in the mountain bike market. Nobody was looking at them with anything close to envy. Specialized, GT, Diamondback, Klein, Cannondale, Mongoose, and even Bianchi were producing more popular mountain bikes than Trek.
This Carbon fiber 9800 model (particularly with the Rockshox Mag 21 suspension fork upgrade) was a step back in the right direction, however. Trek aluminum bikes at the time were heavy and felt dead when compared to other brands. The glued socket construction method meant that there was an inch of overlapping material at every frame joint. Early Trek suspension bikes were an obvious joke when compared to contemporary GT RTS models, Specialized Stumpjumper FSRs or really anything else.
OCLV carbon fiber
Rockshox Mag 21
Grip shifters and bar ends
With the 9800 Trek had a light and lively mountain bike that held it’s own against the competition and heralded the company’s openness to new ideas.
It was unusual to build a smooth and stealthy-looking carbon mountain bike in ‘94. Marketing was all about ruggedness and resistance to some pretty weird hypothetical abuse (reinforcing gussets were added to some interesting places on frames and bike companies were still strangely fixated on seatstays that might flex or twist). Some riders avoided carbon fiber out of repair fantasies that involved welding torches and anvils, not glue & scissors.
The worst brake solution ever
Deore XT M739
Quick release lever and multi-tool in one
This model does have a great mix of parts for 1994. There’s the Rockshox Mag 21, which was really the best fork available during the 1990’s as the elastomer fork suspension fad played out to it’s mushy end in about 2000. The Deore XT equipment was, as always, a benchmark for how bike parts were supposed to work.
The long handlebar stem and even longer bar ends were quite literally a bit much. The rear brake actuation cam gives bike mechanics headaches to this day, but the Ice Green color sure was nice.