Premiere Bike Manufacturer Trek(R) Selects thinkiD(TM)

think3 Technology Used to Help Design New Time Trial Bike in Record Time; Being Used in Tour de France

WATERLOO, Wis., July 14 /PRNewswire/ -- When Michael Sagan and his team of industrial designers at Trek Bicycle Corporation began using thinkiD for the first time, it was definitely trial by fire. The engineers at the 29-year-old bike manufacturer had just four weeks to design and build a new Time Trial bike, the Ttx, for the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.

Designing a Time Trial Bike certainly is not simple. According to Sagan, Trek's senior designer and Technology Principal, understanding aerodynamics is paramount to designing the leanest and fastest racing bike in the world. Trek's Time Trial bike frames are made of a complex composite material called OCLV(R) HC Honeycomb carbon. Modifying the frame design, even millimeters, is a time-intensive activity. With only a month to make the Ttx a reality, the Trek team had to collapse modification time down as much as possible and ensure the precision engineering demanded for a racing bike stayed intact.

That's where think3 technology came into play. "We used thinkiD to make changes to the frame, which took minutes, when it typically takes hours," said Hans Eckholm, an industrial designer for Trek who worked on the Ttx. "This was beneficial not only in the time it saved us in making changes, but also in the rapid team review process that was constantly occurring." The technology driving this type of speed is think3's Global Shape Modeling, called GSM3. GSM3 automatically makes geometry calculations under a shape change while maintaining design integrity. This typically is a manual process for the designer.

Trek's own race against the clock paid off and the Ttx was delivered on time. It is one weapon in a quiver of different Trek competitive racing bikes used by Lance Armstrong and the Discovery Team during their attempt to win a historic seventh Tour de France, which began on July 2 and ends in Paris on July 24. The new bike helped to propel Armstrong and his Discovery Channel team to a team time trial (TTT) victory in record time in Stage 4 on July 5. Trek has been building bikes for the team since 1998.

Trek Looks for Efficiency Gains in Design and Engineering Process

Sagan, an eight-year Trek veteran, has witnessed the company's rapid growth and the increasing market pressure to deliver new products faster. Their stable of products ranges from competitive racing and mountain bikes to recreational bikes designed for the entire family, which Sagan refers to as "trikes to Tour winners." With Trek's product diversification and growth, the industrial design team has grown to 13 and there are dozens of engineers to keep pace with demand. "Before 2000, it would take between 12 and 14 months to design and build a bike. Today, the average is four months. And as we've proved in extreme cases like the Ttx, it can be done in four weeks."

For Sagan, that translates into finding better and smarter ways to tap new technologies to design and produce bikes. "We're really at the beginning of using think3 technology and plan to use it across design, manufacturing and production where applicable. For example, when you adapt a carbon bike design to several frame sizes, it's very time intensive because organic blending and forms require a unique design for each size. I plan to use think3 technology to alter our original design, accommodating the change in size geometry without rebuilding."

Sagan also attributes thinkiD's ability to read any legacy data from other Computer-aided Industrial Design (CAID) products they use during design and production as one of the main reasons Trek selected think3. "To build a robust CAD model takes experience and time. To move or change an angle, you have to go back and forth between programs and designers to make the change. With thinkiD, we can leverage 3-D data and make changes without affecting design intent or production capability."

Eckholm has been with Trek for one year and is involved in virtually every design project. He wants technologies that allow him to focus on design intent -- knowing integrity stays intact throughout. "Any CAID tool is just that, a tool. What makes it a good tool is whether it improves your ability to get your design, as you envision it, downstream accurately and efficiently. think3 opens up more possibilities to realize our imaginations."

Trek Bicycles

Trek designs, engineers and manufactures high quality, technologically sophisticated bicycles in the United States. With global markets and a full line of high performance components and accessories, Trek is the worldwide leader in the sale of premium bicycles.

Trek not only manages the Trek brand name, but also the Gary Fisher line, presently one of the world's fastest growing bicycle brands. In the spring of 1995, Trek acquired the Gary Klein and Keith Bontrager brands. Klein and Bontrager design and build highly technical aluminum, steel and titanium bicycles and components at Trek's factories in Wisconsin. Trek also manufactures a premium line of road bikes and accessories designed by three-time Tour de France winner, Greg LeMond. These acquisitions have expanded Trek's product line and provided a wealth of future growth opportunities around the world.

Founded in a small barn in Waterloo, Wisconsin in 1976, Trek Bicycle Corporation is a privately held corporation that still resides in Waterloo. Begun with just five employees making hand-built bicycle frames, Trek has grown into a globally orientated corporation that presently employs 1500 people around the world, with the majority of Trek employees working in its five Wisconsin manufacturing facilities. 

www.trekbikes.com.

think3 Inc.

think3 provides innovative, next generation industrial design solutions and is a leading supplier of product development solutions to mid-sized manufacturers worldwide. Their customers include BMW, Audi, Maytag, Alessi and GE Medical Devices. Overall, the company enables more than 5,000 manufacturers to achieve dramatic gains in competitiveness and profitability by optimizing their product development process. think3's best-of-class products, services and unique business delivery model lower manufacturers' risks and remove barriers to successful implementation. With headquarters in Cincinnati and offices throughout Europe, Asia and North America, the privately held company has been leading innovation for more than 20 years. 

www.think3.com.

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