New Bike Day: 2012 Trek 9th District.

I was lucky enough to receive the proto for the 2012 9th

District. The Aluminum frame and fork were made in Waterloo

Wisconsin by Jarod Brown for geometry and styling evaluation.

After passing, it was broken down to frame and fork to eventually

be given to me. As a proto, it has no bottle cage bosses and a few

differences from the final production model.

I wanted to make the bike a tribute to Detroit, the city I

learned how to ride a bike in. Detroit is mostly flat yet has

some of the roughest roads in the country compounded by

broken glass and metal shards that line the shoulder. I started

with bomb-proof Bontrager SSR wheels and 4mm thick thorn

resistant tubes. I kept the gearing a shallow 11-23 9 speed

with a 48t SRAM courier crankset. To tell the story of robustness,

I went with the Shimano Saint downhill rear derailluer and crank

bros stem. The Bontrager Krivits bar is a fun MTB bar that really

gives the rider a feeling of control and stability over rough terrain.

Lastly, the graphics are derived from the production graphics, but

where the production bike shows Osaka Japan's streets, my bike

highlights some of the fun spots to mash around Detroit. The bike

is matte black with gloss black/gold decals and an unfinished raw

aluminum fork. This was to reflect Detroits incredibly technical

and developed engineering abilities while admitting to its "unfinished"

state.

The geometry is fun and whippy like all the Districts and it has

been a hoot to ride all over Detroit, Chicago and Madison.

I have been riding it for 4-5 months now and can finally show

everyone now that the 2012 model line up is out now.

Stop on by a Trek Dealer and take one for a spin!