After lurking on the forum for a bit, I wanted to officially introduce myself. My name is Mitchell and I am the new Community Manager for Trek Bikes! If you have ever sent a message to us recently through our social media channels and gotten a response, that was me on the other end!
A little about me:
I was born in Canada, lived in Pennsylvania and then moved to Wisconsin where I now work at Trek! I’ve been hooked on cycling ever since my first real bike, a 2001 Trek Vert 1! It wasn’t the fanciest bike, but that BMX bike got me into the sport. Now I ride both mountain and road bikes! Also, I often travel to watch family at friends at triathlons, so maybe you’ll see some guy wearing a bunch of Trek branded clothing not on a bike, because that could be me! I’ll be at Barrelman in Canada, Miami Man, and Ironman Wisconsin this year.
I hope to be a helpful asset for you all here on the forum and specifically within the Official Speed Concept Owners Thread with those bike questions!
Welcome aboard. What exactly does “community manager” mean? One reason Carl was so respected around these parts is ST is fully of really geeky people and Carl was as geeky if not more geeky. I don’t even know if Carl was supposed to be interacting with ST as a defined part of his position or just because he liked to but I guess what I am really asking is what role do you play with building and engineering Trek triathlon bikes? As a bonus question for you, any early predictions to a 2019 Ironman Wisconsin winner?
Welcome aboard. What exactly does “community manager” mean? One reason Carl was so respected around these parts is ST is fully of really geeky people and Carl was as geeky if not more geeky. I don’t even know if Carl was supposed to be interacting with ST as a defined part of his position or just because he liked to but I guess what I am really asking is what role do you play with building and engineering Trek triathlon bikes? As a bonus question for you, any early predictions to a 2019 Ironman Wisconsin winner?
Thanks and that’s a good question! Let me start by saying I’m not like Carl as I lack the engineering background that he has - I work with customer service and marketing. But, I’m thankful to have a great support network here in Waterloo and a good relationship with our product engineers! My role at Trek is to monitor the social media channels and recently I moved to third-party channels like ST to help our customers in places we are not involved but can be. Its a very busy and time consuming position, but I thoroughly enjoy working with people (and who doesn’t love talking bikes all day?).
For your IM Wisconsin question, that’s tough… Linsey Corbin did such a great job last year, it would be great to see her return and do it again. Eric Engel has also been in the leaderboards for a while, so maybe he can shine if he competes for 2019. But overall should go to our in-house customer service rep/pro Andrew Keily
Eric Engel has also been in the leaderboards for a while, so maybe he can shine if he competes for 2019. But overall should go to our in-house customer service rep/pro Andrew Keily
Welcome aboard. What exactly does “community manager” mean? One reason Carl was so respected around these parts is ST is fully of really geeky people and Carl was as geeky if not more geeky. I don’t even know if Carl was supposed to be interacting with ST as a defined part of his position or just because he liked to but I guess what I am really asking is what role do you play with building and engineering Trek triathlon bikes? As a bonus question for you, any early predictions to a 2019 Ironman Wisconsin winner?
Thanks and that’s a good question! Let me start by saying I’m not like Carl as I lack the engineering background that he has - I work with customer service and marketing. But, I’m thankful to have a great support network here in Waterloo and a good relationship with our product engineers! My role at Trek is to monitor the social media channels and recently I moved to third-party channels like ST to help our customers in places we are not involved but can be. Its a very busy and time consuming position, but I thoroughly enjoy working with people (and who doesn’t love talking bikes all day?).
For your IM Wisconsin question, that’s tough… Linsey Corbin did such a great job last year, it would be great to see her return and do it again. Eric Engel has also been in the leaderboards for a while, so maybe he can shine if he competes for 2019. But overall should go to our in-house customer service rep/pro Andrew Keily
Oh man, so Keily is already throwing his hat in the ring. If he won people would be crying collusion and how he must have been drafting the lead vehicle or the Trek tech van that roams the course. Corbin isn’t a bad bet on the ladies side, but I am not sure I like the chance of any WI resident or native to win Ironman Wisconsin. Maybe the most talented athlete to come out of Wisconsin (besides Gwen) would be Jake Rhyner. He says he is racing his first IM this year but homeboy rides a Cervelo P5. With that being said there is money on the male side again this year, not much but some, and an automatic Kona qualifier spot so much higher stakes than no pro money for the men last year. As a result, we could see a very big field akin to back in the days before the KPR point system for pro athletes. As a pro athlete looking to go to Kona the races like Ironman Wisconsin offer a pretty good chance of no serious heavy hitters showing up as they are all in lock down mode for Ironman Hawaii. Regardless tell your in-house Keily I said hi and he better be training during this snow storm if he wants to win big on Sept 8th.
Welcome Mitch. Thanks for coming on here. The SC has a huge following on here and a lot of that is due to the support Carl gave on here.
A few questions:
Why was the 9 series speed concept discontinued? The madone and emonda are both still offered in 600 oclv carbon, why isn’t the SC? As a beloved SC fan, please bring back the 9 series speed concept.
Also… do you have a new part number for the speed concept brake pad holders/carriers?? The part number listed in the service manual is no longer a valid part number according to my lbs. Old part number is 433749.
It appears the trek speed speed concept fit guide/chart is no longer linked on trek’s website. I highly suggest that the link gets added back. Fit questions often come up on this site and many have struggled to find the SC fit guide. A few of us have saved off the guide to our personal computers. But it often gets asked on here for the link to it.
Is there a new bearing offered to fit SRAM AXS cranks into the trek bb90? I believe the SRAM AXS spindle is 24 mm diameter so perhaps the shimano bb90 bearings will work but I just want to verify.
Eric Engel has also been in the leaderboards for a while, so maybe he can shine if he competes for 2019. But overall should go to our in-house customer service rep/pro Andrew Keily
Welcome aboard. What exactly does “community manager” mean? One reason Carl was so respected around these parts is ST is fully of really geeky people and Carl was as geeky if not more geeky. I don’t even know if Carl was supposed to be interacting with ST as a defined part of his position or just because he liked to but I guess what I am really asking is what role do you play with building and engineering Trek triathlon bikes? As a bonus question for you, any early predictions to a 2019 Ironman Wisconsin winner?
Thanks and that’s a good question! Let me start by saying I’m not like Carl as I lack the engineering background that he has - I work with customer service and marketing. But, I’m thankful to have a great support network here in Waterloo and a good relationship with our product engineers! My role at Trek is to monitor the social media channels and recently I moved to third-party channels like ST to help our customers in places we are not involved but can be. Its a very busy and time consuming position, but I thoroughly enjoy working with people (and who doesn’t love talking bikes all day?).
For your IM Wisconsin question, that’s tough… Linsey Corbin did such a great job last year, it would be great to see her return and do it again. Eric Engel has also been in the leaderboards for a while, so maybe he can shine if he competes for 2019. But overall should go to our in-house customer service rep/pro Andrew Keily
Oh man, so Keily is already throwing his hat in the ring. If he won people would be crying collusion and how he must have been drafting the lead vehicle or the Trek tech van that roams the course. Corbin isn’t a bad bet on the ladies side, but I am not sure I like the chance of any WI resident or native to win Ironman Wisconsin. Maybe the most talented athlete to come out of Wisconsin (besides Gwen) would be Jake Rhyner. He says he is racing his first IM this year but homeboy rides a Cervelo P5. With that being said there is money on the male side again this year, not much but some, and an automatic Kona qualifier spot so much higher stakes than no pro money for the men last year. As a result, we could see a very big field akin to back in the days before the KPR point system for pro athletes. As a pro athlete looking to go to Kona the races like Ironman Wisconsin offer a pretty good chance of no serious heavy hitters showing up as they are all in lock down mode for Ironman Hawaii. Regardless tell your in-house Keily I said hi and he better be training during this snow storm if he wants to win big on Sept 8th.
I’m actually throwing his hat in for him - so hopefully he sees this post, ha! He’s been training pretty strong this year from all those lunch time trainer and gym sessions! But you are 100% correct about he big prize this year, that Kona spot is big. I bet we will see some strong finishers and a really great race overall. I hope to see some tough competition!
I’ve noticed several Trek sponsored pros running a Bontrager branded disk wheel on their Speed Concepts. Can you tell us which disk your aero guys generally pair with the SC?
Welcome Mitch. Thanks for coming on here. The SC has a huge following on here and a lot of that is due to the support Carl gave on here.
A few questions:
Why was the 9 series speed concept discontinued? The madone and emonda are both still offered in 600 oclv carbon, why isn’t the SC? As a beloved SC fan, please bring back the 9 series speed concept.
Also… do you have a new part number for the speed concept brake pad holders/carriers?? The part number listed in the service manual is no longer a valid part number according to my lbs. Old part number is 433749.
It appears the trek speed speed concept fit guide/chart is no longer linked on trek’s website. I highly suggest that the link gets added back. Fit questions often come up on this site and many have struggled to find the SC fit guide. A few of us have saved off the guide to our personal computers. But it often gets asked on here for the link to it.
Is there a new bearing offered to fit SRAM AXS cranks into the trek bb90? I believe the SRAM AXS spindle is 24 mm diameter so perhaps the shimano bb90 bearings will work but I just want to verify.
Thanks Steve!
I actually never heard the official word on it’s discontinuation, but I do know that the reasoning for the change to the current grade of carbon was due in part to the strength offered by a thicker carbon. The design allows it to still be rigid as the previous 9 series, with a slight increase in weight. I’ll shoot the feedback to our amazing product team though!
The pad holders do not have a replacement SKU listed, but I would use SKU W507767 next time you are looking for a replacement at your Trek dealer.
Fit guide, I have that handy if anyone ever needs it. We can look to integrate it however.
And lastly (whew!), SRAM AXS only requires a BB 90 GXP Kit (specifically SKU 524556). The new Aero Tri setup is pretty fantastic. I recently built up an eTap and now I wish I waited! But either way, both models are pretty fantastic.
I’ve noticed several Trek sponsored pros running a Bontrager branded disk wheel on their Speed Concepts. Can you tell us which disk your aero guys generally pair with the SC?
Scott
I’ll have to reach out to the Race Shop about that question in the morning. Seems some bikes might have a previous Bontrager disc.
OK…so I have a question for you… I have a speed concept, and it’s great, but why is the Mono Extension Plugin so hard to get hold of and SO expensive…!!! Having spent some time in the velodrome and in the windtunnel, I’d really like to make some adjustments which would be better done with other extensions…but at £300+ for the plug in plus £100+ for the extensions…that’s an expensive tweek…!
I got a few question.
Is there a speed concept disc in the making?
Will there be an aeolus xxx 9 in the pipeline.
If there comes a new speed concept. Will it have isospeed.
Hi Mitch! Speed Concept owner here and a regular contributor to the Official Speed Concept thread when Carl was around. Kind of unrelated to tri but do you know of any plans to make a carbon version of the Full Stache? That bike is ridiculously fun.
