Trek IsoSpeed
Forgiving Ride, Relentless Performance
Since the invention of the traditional diamond-shaped bicycle frame over 100 years ago, a single fundamental challenge has remained: how to make a bicycle frame stiff enough to be efficient and handle predictably, yet compliant enough to reduce the jarring and fatiguing effects of a rough road.
Dozens—possibly hundreds—of ideas to solving the stiffness vs. compliance tradeoff have been tried and tested with various results, including numerous vibration damping materials and suspension systems. But for all the attempts, noble though they may have been, no options were both effective and efficient to the more discerning tastes of experienced riders. Until 2012. Until IsoSpeed.
IsoSpeed challenges the traditional design of a bicycle frame. Devoid of the more favored approaches to the compliance quandary (such as suspension systems, elastomers, or a vibration damper), IsoSpeed maintains the diamond-shaped frameset geometry but “decouples" the seat tube from the top tube, allowing the seat tube to flex with the forces of the road. The result is a bike that moves with the road while maintaining the feel and efficiency of the traditional race bike design.
This “decoupling” is achieved in two manners, depending on the bicycle model. Both methods are equally effective in delivering a significantly more compliant ride quality.
What does it do?
IsoSpeed diminishes the fatiguing impacts of the road, allowing the rider to remain fresher longer.
Is it proven?
The IsoSpeed development project began when we challenged ourselves to build a faster race bike for our professional racing teams competing on the notoriously rough courses of cycling’s notoriously difficult one-day spring Classics, such as Strade Bianche, Ronde van Vlaanderen, and Paris-Roubaix. Each of these races—all of which are among the world’s most renowned—heavily feature gravel, dirt, or cobblestone roads. Since the 2012 introduction of Domane, our first IsoSpeed-equipped road bike, each of these races has been won on a bike with IsoSpeed.
How was it developed?
IsoSpeed was developed through a partnership between Trek engineers and Fabian Cancellara, one of the world’s most successful Classics riders. Professional riders are a key element in our development process. They spend more time on bikes than anybody else, and they're equipped to scrutinize minute details and provide the valuable feedback that is paramount to creating the best bikes in the world. Who better to push us to innovate than those whose livelihood depends on the performance of our products?
What are the drawbacks?
Honestly, we haven’t found any. IsoSpeed rides with the power transfer and handling characteristics of a traditional carbon frame but with noticeably more compliance. There is no weight penalty, it requires little maintenance, and the frame is included in Trek’s industry-best limited lifetime warranty. If you can find a problem with IsoSpeed, we would love to hear it.
Front IsoSpeed
One of the consistent pieces of feedback from riders that have enjoyed rear IsoSpeed was that even though they could plow unfazed through rougher pavement than ever before, they could still feel the road shock through their arms from the front wheel. Our solution was to take everything that works from IsoSpeed and move it up the bike. The same technology that provides great compliance at the saddle now delivers compliance at the front end. Front IsoSpeed, located at the top of the headset, is captured in a rocker cup similar to rear IsoSpeed. This allows the flex of the steerer tube, providing additional compliance at the front of a bike. The rocker cup of the upper steerer has zero lateral movement, allowing the bike to steer and handle with precision.
OCLV Carbon
Our strongest, lightest carbon yet
OCLV Carbon is Trek’s patented carbon fiber process, the result of more than 25 years of experience building the world’s finest carbon fiber bicycles in Waterloo, Wisconsin, USA. Experience matters, especially when working with a material that holds seemingly endless possibilities but presents such unique challenges as carbon fiber. To understand the best technology, you have to build it, and we’ve been doing just that since 1991.
Why OCLV Carbon?
A well-built carbon frame dramatically reduces weight compared to metallic materials, while maintaining the strength and stiffness that high performance bicycles and their riders demand. This is where Trek’s pioneered and patented OCLV Carbon—an acronym for Optimum Compaction Low Void—process comes in. OCLV Carbon frames begin with the best material available. Trek has spent countless development hours perfecting the construction of a variety of weights and types of carbon (cloth, unidirectional, etc.). The OCLV process is best explained when broken down into two parts:
Optimum Compaction: Carbon is layered into a series of plies compacted to the ideal fiber-resin ratio. The process starts with cutting carbon fiber from large sheets to a specific shape which is then placed into a mold. A combination of heat and pressure then compresses the sheets of carbon into a carbon lug. This combination of heat and pressure is OCLV’s most essential and closely guarded equation.
Low Void: Voids are the spaces that exist between the layers of carbon fiber that comprise a component or frame. Minimizing these voids is the primary goal of quality carbon engineering, as more voids translates to reduced strength and durability of the composite material. OCLV Carbon exceeds aerospace standards regarding the number of voids in its material.
Shapes matter
In addition to sizeable reductions in weight, the largest advantage of carbon fiber frames over another material are the limitless shapes that the material can be molded into. Different shapes exhibit different strength, stiffness, and aerodynamic properties.
Trek utilizes Finite Element Analysis, a comprehensive software simulation toolkit, to tell us exactly how different shapes will respond to different riders and riding surfaces. We utilize proven theories of fluid mechanics through Computational Fluid Dynamics in order to explore the aerodynamic properties of various designs. Our bikes are conceived with computer-generated designs, fluid-dynamically assessed and finite analyzed, and the resulting shapes appear seamlessly machine-made. At the end of the day, these complex scientific investigations are applied in a hands-on, ground-up process that combines multiple molds with a variety of carbon materials to result in a magnificently engineered and largely hand-built product.
OCLV Mountain
Mountain biking is about pushing the limit of where your bike can take you. Riding on every conceivable surface in hostile conditions takes a toll on any material. To develop OCLV Mountain, Trek’s engineers developed a methodology borrowed from the aerospace industry to ensure our frames were up to the challenge: Retained Strength. The philosophy is simple and based around the single question of how durable a frame remains following impact. By employing different composite materials in unique layups specifically in typical high damage areas, Trek’s engineers have created frames that now retain their ability to bear load after an impact surpassing even their aluminum counterparts.
Carbon armor
Taking durability to another level, Trek’s development team created Carbon Armor, a highly refined elastomeric designed to slow down and spread the distribution of a sharp impact to the frame. Carbon Armor essentially decreases the immediate impact of a rough hit the frame feels, leaving you feeling more confident than ever to go after that next drop.
Built to last
Trek builds bikes to last and we stand behind every one that we bears our name. Just as the first Trek hand-welded over forty years ago in a red barn, our first full carbon frame is still under warranty. All OCLV Carbon bicycles come with a limited lifetime warranty, because we believe that more people riding bikes is in everybody’s best interest.
H2 fit
H2 is the optimal fit to put most riders, including many of our Pro Team atheltes, in the right posistion for power and performance.
Aerodynamics
When the margin of victory is measured in thousands of a second, every inch, every gram, every angle matters. In the effort to move an object through air in the most efficient manner possible, Trek engineers dream, draw, build, test, and repeat. The countless hours of development and work are paid in the raised arms of thousands of athletes the world over grateful to have met their challenge. Whether its ever spoken, every age group triathlon, every World Tour Time Trial, every coffee ride sprint finish, the work of Trek's Analysis Team plays a role.
Wind tunnel testing
Ideas you can argue. Data you cannot. So when it comes time for the hard math of Trek's aerodynamic development efforts, the laboratory becomes a little more claustrophobic. The wind tunnel is the perfect laboratory for testing the aerodynamic performance of cycling equipment and Trek has been committed to its use for over two decades of development. Tested in the same tunnels used by aerospace engineers, equipment design breakthroughs such as Kammtail Virtual Foil and Bontrager's Aeolus line of aero wheels have been tested in the wind tunnel and proven on cycling's biggest stages.
Manny
A key member, though typically unheralded, of Trek's Analysis Team is the aerodynamic mannequin the team has lovingly dubbed, "Manny." More the strong silent type, Manny, is an inanimate surrogate capable of a pedaling motion that addresses the muscular limitations of human design by being able to hold a consistent aerodynamic position for however long required by the team. This allows the Analysis Team to work specifically on whatever they are trying to prove during their time in the tunnel. And at the end of the day, Manny conveniently folds into a custom made case easily checked on all major airlines.
Track testing
Though a wind tunnel will produce accurate data regarding a rider and their bike's aerodynamic potential, races are not contested in wind tunnels. A rider has to be able to hold a position for a given period of time for the lessons of aerodynamics to be applicable. Refining a rider's aerodynamic position in movement takes place on an indoor track where Trek's Analysis and Precision Fit teams can collaborate on finding a rider's optimal aerodynamic position.
Computational Fluid Dynamics
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a program that Trek engineers deploy throughout various development cycles to test early tube shape concepts that exist only as three dimensional drawings. CFD acts as a virtual wind tunnel to test the aerodynamic potential of the drawing to determine whether prototyping can continue or further refinement is required. It’s aided Trek in our most important contributions to aerodynamics including Kammtail Virtual Foil and Bontrager’s Aeolus wheel line. While CFD cannot completely replace the need for wind tunnel testing, it can drastically reduce development time and turn ideas into reality much faster.