Blue Collar Mountain Biking on Trek/Lemond and Klein
The buzz around Trek/Lemond split has left many questions. What is next for Trek? Will Armstrong be introducing a new bike line?
What most folks didn’t hear during all this buzz was the word Klein. That’s right Klein is coming back to the states. Just when Trek was pushing out the last old stock of Klein from their warehouses they decide the flip the switch back to on “On.”
WATERLOO, WI (BRAIN)—Trek will introduce a new Klein road bike line to its worldwide dealers this summer.
The line could replace LeMond bicycles on shop floors if Trek is successful in its appeal to drop the brand. The company yesterday asked a federal court to release it from its licensing agreement to produce LeMond bicycles.
Trek owns the Klein brand, which it purchased from Gary Klein in 1995. Trek withdrew Klein from the U.S. market a few years ago. It remains a current brand with current products outside of the United States.
Some Trek retailers speculated that Trek would simply put a Klein decal on current LeMond road models to preserve those designs.
But Joe Vadeboncoeur, director of product development for Trek Bicycles, said Trek is developing the new line expressly for Klein.
“Since there is a current Klein brand with its own unique product mix and brand identity, we will not be selling any current products that Trek developed for any of our other brands, relabeled as Klein,” said Vadeboncoeur.
Read the whole article over at Bicycle Retailer.
198’s Thoughts
This should be pretty cool! I remember drooling over the Klein paint jobs and internal cable routing. I can’t wait to see what they will be bringing stateside. Stay tuned…