Trek Road Bicycle Reynolds 501 Construction

In the early 1990s Trek's director of technology, Bob Read, attended an aerospace industry trade show in Salt Lake City, Utah, eventually meeting up with a closed mold tooling company called Radius Engineering. That visit convinced Read that Trek's future success depended on building frames from carbon fiber, a material he envisioned could be used to make light, strong frames. In 1993 Trek introduced its first OCLV Carbon mountain bike frame, the 9900, which at 2.84 lb (1.29 kg) was the world's lightest production mountain bike frame. In 1993 Trek also acquired Gary Fisher Mountain Bikes, named after Gary Fisher, one of the inventors of the mountain bike and one of the most popular names in off-road cycling. Fisher had founded Gary Fisher Mountain Bikes in 1983 and sold his company in 1991 to Taiwan's Anlen company, remaining on as President. In 1992, Howie Cohen, who had previously imported Nishiki, Azuki and Kuwahara bicycles, assisted Gary Fisher with his brand[2] â€" 18 months later brokering the acquisition of Fisher by Trek (in 1993).[2] In 1994 Trek entered the growing home fitness arena, introducing Trek Fitness Exercycles. In 1996 Trek discontinued the Exercycle line, spinning off its fitness division into an independently-owned company, renamed Vision Fitness. In 1995, Trek introduced its full suspension Y bike, a departure from traditional bike design. The Y bike sold well, and won an "Outstanding Design and Engineering Award" from Popular Mechanics magazine ...