1997 Bontrager Race Lite
Vintage Bontrager Race Lite
It probably isn’t fair to Trek, but there is a group of modern classic bikes today that hold their value better simply because they came along “Before Trek ruined things”.
Have an old Klein mountain or road bike? The versions that were made before Trek took over the company are worth a lot more than the ones that came after.
Looking for a LeMond racing bike? You’re probably interested in finding a LeMond-badged bike that TVT, Clark Kent or Calfee made, not something that Trek produced following their mid-‘90’s deal with Greg.
Vintage Gary Fisher mountain bikes are almost all pre-Trek, as the label was killed off almost immediately after Trek hired/merged with/bought out Gary Fisher.
Marzocci Bomber
1997 Deore XT
Bontrager dropouts
Keith Bontrager’s bikes? Pre-Trek Bontragers have certainly held their value better than anything Bontrager-badged after being hired/bought out by Trek in 1995. There are a couple of transition years, however, where the Bontrager frame shop in Santa Cruz operated under the Trek umbrella and still produced some fabulous bikes.
Really, Keith Bontrager is the only bike industry icon that survived a Trek takeover with his legacy pretty much intact.
Bontrager is a brilliant engineer who came into the bike world from motorcycles in the late ‘70’s. Utilizing his experience as a motocross mechanic (and his physics degree), Bontrager bikes began with custom mountain bike rims and steel frames. Bontrager steel frames have strong joints augmented by load-distributing gussets and sometimes with mechanically joined (via rivets & glue) attachment points for derailleurs, cables or bottle cages instead of brazing. This was an attempt to reduce the weakening effect of repeatedly heating and cooling the steel tubing when welding these areas. Bontrager’s frames had seat stays made with larger diameter tubing in the upper area which added torsional stiffness around the brake-bosses joined to lighter and more flexible tubing below the brakes to add greater bump compliance.
V-brakes
Tubing gussets
USE post
This bike came out of Keith’s Santa Cruz workshop during the early years of his work with Trek. It’s built of steel tubing (naturally), and displays all of the signature Bontrager reinforcements and design touches. The Shimano Deore XT equipment, Marzocci coil-sprung Bomber fork, USE suspension seat post and the low, flat handlebars are all popular mountain bike specs of the era.
Today, Bontrager’s name is stamped on most of the parts and accessories made by the Trek company. Keith probably still has a hand in designing a fair amount of the components (their handlebars and wheels are brilliant) but we doubt Keith has any say in the design of Bontrager cycling socks, bells or baskets.