From build, to photoshoot, to Lance, all within 24 hours
I know, I know, this isn’t road bike stuff, but its Lance Armstrong’s new Trek Top Fuel 9.9 SSL mountain bike, and that’s news to a lot of us. Lance’s first race on his new steed was this past weekend in Snowmass where the part-time Aspen resident won the Pro Men’s Colorado State Cross Country Mountain Bike Championship.
Here are some shots from the recent build up in Waterloo, WI, with Trek technician Ray Waxham and SRAM tech Paul Damato.
An integrated Texas longhorn and Trek logo on the headtube- a Trekxas longhorn?
The production frame was designed by one of Trek’s frame artists and painted in house. It features an integrated Texas Longhorn/Trek logo (Trekxas?) on the headtube, a horseshoe on the integrated seat mast. The stem was also custom painted to match.
Lance’s XX cockpit with Bontrager XXX handlebars, that’s a lot of X’s – also notice the custom painted stem.
Lance requested that the bike come equipped with a complete production SRAM XX mountain bike gruppo; the latest, lightest, most efficient performance defining MTB gruppo which involved the SRAM, RockShox, Avid, and Truvativ brands. The goal of the XX project was to craft the most advanced cross-country specific gruppo ever.
Lance’s race set-up features the RockShox X-Loc handlebar remote connected to his SID suspension fork set at 100mm of travel. Also, the RockShox Ario rear shock utilizes an optional remote lock-out, which is mounted on his right side of the cockpit. He chose to run the 28/42 gearing mated to the 11-36 10 speed SRAM XX cassette with the PC 1090R chain and PowerLock. XX triggers control front and rear XX derailleurs, and he selected 160 X-Sweep rotors to finish off the XX brakeset.
Prior to his winning his state title Lance tweeted about his new XX gruppo, “First ride on the new SRAM XX as well. Hands down best shifting I’ve experienced on a mtb.” High praise for a guy who is pretty particular about his componentry. Read more about XX here XX homepage The bike build took place the morning of July 31, the bike then went immediately into the photo shoot. The bike was then was boxed and UPS’d to Lance in CO for a Saturday morning arrival. Knowing Lance he probably had the bike built and was riding by 9am. Congrats to Lance on his State Championship title and good luck at Leadville this weekend.
Trek tech Ray Waxham builds up Lance’s new Trek Fuel 9.9 SSL bike equipped with SRAM’s new XX MTB group
The beautiful finish was custom painted for Lance by Trek in Waterloo, WI
A backside shot from the photoshoot