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(Trek, cont.) For better or worse, Trek produces bikes and the accessories to go with them. And now the company plans to take even more of their products overseas. Currently, the company distributes their products in 65 countries. “We’re opening a sales office in China at the end of this year,” McFarlane says. “The bikes will be built here in the U.S. and shipped to China.” Overseas sales currently account for about a third of Trek’s business. Trek President John Burke hopes to expand this market. He says many European and Asian countries rely on the bicycle for transportation. He hopes Trek can supply more of the bicycles that people in these countries need to commute to work and school. However, the company has not forgotten about tapping new markets in the United States, where the spirit of bicycling is more recreational. Although the mountain bike still accounts for about 80 percent of Trek’s product line, the company has recently developed or expanded on their lines of specialty bikes to suit different types of bicyclists. The new stunt bikes, part of the BMX line, have thick tires and an overbuilt frame for the rider who takes on ramps, dirt hills and empty air. The romantic double-seat bicycles make riding a social activity. And Trek offers four models of folding bikes that compress for when city bicyclists need to jump on a bus, get on a train or catch a taxi. Zapata Espinoza, who works in Trek’s marketing department, says designers in Waterloo are working on the plan for bicyclist Lance Armstrong, winner of six Tours de France, who will ride a new line of tricycles. Maybe, Espinoza hopes, Trek can make a perfect bike for everyone and for every terrain. Like veins under skin, bike trails weave across Wisconsin, largely unseen by those who don’t use them. Most of the trails are old railroad tracks that have been filled in with packed dirt. Brian Kramer, a 25-year-old sales representative for Trek, grew up in Green Bay. Kramer says, “There were no bike trails back when I was a kid. Now there’s this long route that goes around the bay.” Still, they are changing the face of the state. Wisconsin has more than 1,000 miles of bike trails, most of which have been created in the last 25 years. In Barron County, the trails follow the edge of Chetek Lake. In Eau Claire County, the trails zigzag from Augusta to Fairchild. And in Vilas County, the trails loop through the northern woods. Trek Travel appeases to people who use these trails and they hope to take them from Green Bay to Europe and back again.
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