Maybe when they figure they can make it faster or there is a LARGE market demand but until then......the answer is no.

What is the incentive to make one unless you're fighting for market share and in the bike world TT bikes are a tiny slice?

So, a video game is a good business case for selling a new model bike, IRL.

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no sponsors | no races | nothing to see here

Hopefully they don't give into marketing pressure and make a speed concept disk. As disc bikes are inherently less aero and there's not reason to need discs on a TT bike.

I'm just saying that arguably the world's top-selling TT bike is not on the world's largest eCycling platform. My guess is that a new model is in the pipeline. I don't know any more than anyone else, but I'd wager we'll see a prototype or two trickle into the TdF or Kona this year. My guess will be easy to verify or disprove in just a few months.




They might as well just shutter the doors on their conventional bicycle business and just focus on eBikes right?

At some point it just becomes market pressure. They're going to have to, eventually.

Considering how finicky their existing rim brakes are on the current SC I'm beginning to think it may be an upgrade if they come out with a decent disc version. I do love my SC though...

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"They know f_ck-all over at Slowtwitch"
- Lionel Sanders

We have left this argument behind. It's time to move on. Disc brakes are here to stay, rim brakes are going away slowly. You will be okay.

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

My suspicion is that it will be a while. At least another year. SC isn't a high-volume bike and Trek probably has bigger fish to fry first. Also, there's been whisperings that Trek has had a tough time making a bike faster than the SC (despite having plenty of resources and pretty solid CFD, Carl mentioned that when he left their CFD was consistently within 2% of what they would see in the tunnel). We saw that manifest with the new Madone where Trek accidentally told us that the new disc Madone is actually a hair slower than the old rim brake Madone.

My wish list for a new SC: easier to wrench, easier to pack up for travel, build in a little comfort (somehow). Assuming that they go with disc brakes, it would be nice to see the thru-axles, seat post binder, saddle clamp, and cockpit bolts all use the same size hex key (or torx... might as well make it torx). Oh yeah, and a 3T Revo style base bar. I'm flabbergasted more companies haven't tried that approach. So much more secure.

I don’t doubt that timeline for an official launch. But at some point I’d guess a few will get tested under team conditions and we’ll see photos and hear a “no comment” statement.

Pretty much every bicycle manufacturer has released their disc TT bikes so that’s why I suspect it will be soon.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

Are you referring to the plot in their white paper where the old Madone is faster at low yaw? Or is there something else that I'm not aware of?

With that in mind I believe their new Madone is likely even faster than the disc brake model as that has front brake integration and updated frame shaping.

I can attest to this very statement - I have hands down had more issues with my SC than any other bike product (this includes even my Garmin V3 pedals).

The brakes are inherently finicky -I do a lot of technical races and riding and have had them warrantied a few times from the bronze bushings seizing on them and the brakes themselves come out of adjustment a lot in my experience. I have had other issues with it to, probably one of the most well known was the mono extension cradle bolts.

I digress however - I enjoy the bike and truly believe that disc brakes would be an upgrade for this TT bike or any TT bike. I dont know how they would integrate it however so that the cockpit is easily changed around and that might be where the biggest issue is.

IMO, I think will probably see a disc brake Giant Trinity before we see a disc brake Speed Concept. The SC's brakes are actually decent once they are set up correctly and, though they are fiddly, they are VASTLY better than the brakes on the Trinity.

I honestly think you nailed it. The Trek SC is consistently a fast bike, but maybe one of the most difficult to wrench on and adjust, especially from a fitter's perspective. Something like a tririg/cervelo style bar would do wonders. Anything other than the seemingly endless number of bolts on there now.

The revo bar, meh.

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Heath Dotson
HD Coaching:Website |Twitter: 140 Characters or Less|Facebook:Follow us on Facebook

You don’t have to have the drop of the Revo to get the security, just sweep the base bar forward which has the additional aero benefit of a higher aspect ratio.

The sweep I have no problem with it's having the grips underneath. I also think it looks hideous. I'm ok with ugly if it's faster than alternatives, I've not seen anything to convince me that's the case.

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Heath Dotson
HD Coaching:Website |Twitter: 140 Characters or Less|Facebook:Follow us on Facebook

Basically what I’m saying is: sweep the bars forward, have the “grips” extend to the rear instead of out the front as in a normal bar. Thumb braces against base bar, pinky and ring finger hold the “grip”, index and middle finger brake.

I get what you're saying now, still can't see the point in it. Never found traditional base bars to be a hazard. The design you're proposing also pushes the brake lever forward and away from the hand.

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Heath Dotson
HD Coaching:Website |Twitter: 140 Characters or Less|Facebook:Follow us on Facebook

If you ride the Revo back to back against a traditional base bar the additional security is undeniable, especially on a fast descent or over chip seal. Pushing the brake lever forward has a huge benefit: ~70% of your hands’ grip force is in the index and middle finger. Traditional brake placement gives all the leverage to the pinkie and ring fingers. If you ride a mountain bike with a proper cockpit setup the tip of the brake lever will be in line with your index finger and you will only use your index finger to brake. Set up the lever further out so your pinkie can grip it and it’s debatable whether or not you can apply more total force (because the fingers with all the strength are at a point on the lever with less leverage) but modulation certainly becomes worse (and we’re not even going to go into how sketchy that sort of hand positioning would be on a MTB).

Same I love my SC but when I have to mess with the brakes... yikes.

On thread topic... I think the disc model comes out this year... TdF or Kona maybe?

How does a bike get on Zwift in the first place? Pay for it? If so maybe Trek didn't think it was worth the money???

Good question. Maybe Rappstar can chime in.

They do currently have their big 3 road bikes on the platform so there is that.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

Funny I wax just getting ready to post about this because I want to buy a new SC but don't want to get burned by a new model coming out 2 months after I buy this one

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Yellowfin Endurance Coaching and Bike Fits
USAT Level 1, USAC Level 3

If you don't see it at the TdF I doubt you'll see it at Kona.

Comfort? IsoSpeed decoupler or slider would be comfy. There's always the Madone SLR 6 Speed I guess.

I wouldn't worry one iota about that. If anything, you'll be able to pick up a rim brake SC at a discount. I mean the technology had a ~100-year run so it must have something going for it.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

I’m not sure IsoSpeed would work well with TT STAs.

I have a buddy packing his new SC now, leaving for Roth tomorrow...he texted me a couple hours ago saying how he shouldn't have waited to try breaking it down until the trip. He's hating life right now...this is his 2nd Trek SC. He's already having anxiety attacks about putting it together when he gets to Germany. Told him he should pick up a Canyon while there & sell the Trek in that case.

I’ve traveled to AU with my trek sc.
If you have basic knowledge and own a torque wrench, it’s really a non issue. A few more steps, sure, but nothing life altering, esp w Di2. Someone should create an SC specific case with a separate padded case for all the small parts.

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http://www.TriScottsdale.org

Yeah I would think it wouldn't be too horrible. I'm decent with wrenching some things, can't touch trueing a wheel though. But have a Cervelo P3 & there isn't much to do but pop stuff on & off with a Torque wrench. I'd be interested in seeing someone video a Trek SC build after arriving at a race, to see if it really is much of a cluster.

As it stands, due to complaints about lack of user-friendliness of the Trek SC, if I were in the market today for a new bike, I would in part, disqualify a Trek for that reason. But would have to really see for sure prior to laying down any dough. I consider it one of the best bikes out there speedwise, but without a disc (it's all moving that way)--that's another reason. Likely would go P5-disc at this point. They're ahead of the curve at this point.

When I built up my sc last year it was with travel in mind. Mono plug-in + etap makes life very easy, and I’m no mechanic. Also doesn’t hurt I was lucky enough to snag a PremierBike case, but even with another case it would be fairly easy.

I really don’t understand the complaints about adjusting, disassembly, and the brakes.

I take out 9 screws on the sc when traveling and that’s probably overkill: 3 underneath the basebar, 3 for the speed fin, the RD, and 2 for the seatpost.

The SC was the first bike that actually had a wide range of adjustment. No other mfg has matched it’s ease and range of adjusting pad x IMO. You combine the SC pad x adjustment with the pad y adjustment of the p5x/p5disc, you have created the best front end ever.

The brakes work perfectly fine and are easy to adjust if you take your time to understand how they work. 95% of bike shops don’t know how to even work on them. Most people don’t even know the gen 2 rear brake has set screws to make micro adjustments to the rear(gen 1 didn’t). You need to keep the rear brake clean to keep it performing well. Ride in the rain? Sweat profusely on the trainer? All that gunk collects in the rear brake and binds things up. Even the pivot points that are mounted into the frame need to be cleaned. My best advice to anyone having brake issues:

1. Take the entire brake assembly apart and clean it. Seriously.... this solves almost all problems.
2. Always run the longest cable housing possible. Too short causes problems.

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blog

Im sure it’ll be here eventually; more time for me to save up for when it’s finally released!

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

Indeed, I have the Mono plug-in and Di2 and it's not "that bad". I just unhook the cables running to the aero extensions, pull the front brake cover, pull the wedge, undo the three bolts under the base bar, pull the seat post, remove the rear derailleur, and that's it. That's for a Scicon hard case. My beef is that the bolts under the base bar are kind of a pain to get to.

Some of that stuff you have to do on any bike no matter what. You're always going to have to remove the seat post, remove the rear derailleur, and do something about the aero extensions. If you have disc brakes you have to put spacers into the brakes to hold the pads open.

A whole lot of people ride Zwift...youngsters here in NZ are being scouted off the back of their online riding. Video games also gross more money than most movies. Yes, it's a powerful selling platform.

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Don't worry about that. Buy the bike you want. If you're braking a lot you're doing it wrong.

Nobody ever said "I have to contribute this win to my brakes".

I don’t know anything about how zwift bikes work in this way but you are severely underestimating how much video games have the ability to influence real life purchases.

Am I?

Zwift use is a tiny subset of the entire cycling market.
Of the tri/TT market (also a tiny subset of the cycling market), Zwift is also a small market.
Trek has 3 bikes (Domaine, Madone, Emonda) in the game.
Was it an oversight by Trek marketing that they did not include a SC in the game?

Much like everything else on Slowtwitch, we are myopic.
What's the testable, provable value for Trek to spend to reach a few percentage points of the market in a game by including the SC? (I'm not privvy to Zwift or Trek marketing data, etc.)
Does it outweigh sponsoring NBC/NBCSN tv time during TDF coverage, for instance?
What about getting Tim O or Helle F in front of 1000000s of eyeballs?

I'm not dimissing Zwift as a marketing platform for brands; I'm dismissing the importance placed on it, from a few anecdotes here.

I'll openly admit I'm wrong, if a brand marketing rep indicates otherwise.

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no sponsors | no races | nothing to see here

Yes you are.

Data me (that's the ST mantra, right?)

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no sponsors | no races | nothing to see here

Yeah as others have said it’s not that hard to pack up the SC if you have electronic shifting.

If you have mechanical - well that’ll be a royal PITA. In fact I can get onboard with the grumbling about the bike being a pain to wrench and fit with mechanical.

But with Di2 or eTap - it’s just a little more work than a traditional head tube.