The Trek Bicycle test lab – We break it before you buy it

Welcome to the Break Room

If you love bikes, it’s hard not to cringe in our testing lab – a place at Trek Headquarters we affectionately call the Break Room. This is where we take every new product and subject it to the realities of the real world. Cold weather, salt, grime, sweat, big riders, big power, massive hills, millions of pedal strokes. It’s also where we take perfectly good bikes and torque them in cruel and unnatural ways until they’re rendered useless. If this seems wasteful, what you need to understand is that it’s all part of the process. We learn a lot from destroying the things we love. If they fail here, we’ll make sure that they don’t fail out there.

Build, break, build, break again. Not every manufacturer would do this, but it’s a must for us. We’d rather break a bike in Waterloo than have someone break it elsewhere. And, in the end, what happens in the Break Room is what lets us confidently warranty our bikes. Plus, it feels pretty good knowing what we make will stand up to your best and worst rides.