“One of the benefits of Project One is that the sky is the limit,” says Sam Foos, Marketing Director of Project One. “Our talented, diverse team of painters and builders come from backgrounds as technical as master mechanics, and as artistic as tattoo designing. Looking through our portfolio of work unearthed some hidden gems we’ve been lucky enough to create throughout the years. Who ever thought we’d get to bring scratch-and-sniff to life on a bike?! We never know what design is around the corner that just might be the next coolest project our team has ever gotten our hands on.”
Bringing to life the coolest customizations in Project One history, examples of superlative wins include:
- Best 4D Bike – The Peach Bike: The Peach Bike, painted for a cyclist that loved peaches, features hand painted peaches using peach scented scratch and sniff paint. Now, the customer can smell the peaches as they rip and flip their Trek Ticket downhill. This was the first scented bike completed by Trek.
- Best Athlete Customization – Pink Zebra Bike: Caroline Buchanan is a Trek C3 professional athlete, author, and a woman on a mission to empower young girls to get involved in cycling and sports. In her recent children’s book, one page featured the outline of a Trek bicycle, inviting kids to submit their own bike design. A young rider from Buchanan’s home country of Australia colored a bright pink zebra print bike. Caroline loved the design so much that she decided to bring the bike to life. In 2024, Caroline rode her zebra print Trek Ticket to a podium finish at the first-ever women’s slope style event, Crankworx Rotorua.
- Most Animalistic – Cow Bike: The Trek CX Cup is an annual world cup cyclocross event and one of the only stops in North America hosted in Waterloo, Wisconsin, Trek HQ’s backyard. Inspired by the Midwest’s grazing cattle and dairy farms, the race embraces a cow-themed identity, filled with cow décor, cow costumes, and even live cows for spectators to pet. For one rider, it only made sense to race on a cow-inspired bike. The rider has two Trek Boone bikes painted like the state’s favorite grass-fed friends – one, a black and white cow scheme, and the other, a brown and white cattle design to complete his herd.
- Most Difficult Paint Scheme – Oil Slick Bike: The oil slick painting technique puts the Project One paint team to the test, as it uses ultra-iridescent Chroma™ coating to create unique color combinations in shades of orange, blue, and purple. It’s the only paint scheme that can’t be modified or tweaked once the process has begun. When not applied properly at the first attempt, painters must scrap it and try again.
- Most Expensive Customization – Bird of Paradise Bike: The “Bird of Paradise” Domane was painted for a cyclist who wanted to create an ode to their mother, whose favorite flower was the bird-of-paradise. The owner requested that each petal and leaf render its own unique design – requiring extensive graphic work and design presentations between the bike owner and Trek’s expert graphics team and paint shop. When all was said and done, the one-of-a-kind Domane left with a $13,000 paint job that took 120 hours to complete and a total cost of $25,000.
- Fastest Project One design turnaround: When Lidl-Trek athlete, Giulio Ciccone, won the red polka dot jersey in the 2023 Tour de France, the Trek paint shop had the chance to show off their ability to work quickly. The graphics and paint teams in Waterloo, Wisconsin, created a custom Trek Madone in a single day. The bike then traveled for two days before being hand delivered to Ciccone in France. From jersey win to delivery, the project took only three days, a record-setting time for the Project One team, and a well-deserved surprise for the Lidl-Trek rider.
The Project One custom bike program allows riders to turn their dream bike into a reality with cutting edge components, a seemingly endless palette of exquisite colors, and ultra-premium paint schemes created by the best designers in the industry. The process is easy: pick a bike frame, customize your bike parts, then decide if you’d like to select your paint scheme, or come to the expert Trek in-house designers with a paint concept for them to bring to life.
To see the full list of Project One superlatives, visit trekbikes.com/best-of-project-one-bikes/. To learn more about Trek Bicycle and the Project One program, visit trekbikes.com.
About Trek Bicycle
Trek Bicycle is a global leader in the design and manufacturing of bicycles and related products. Trek believes the bicycle can be a simple solution to many of the world’s most complex problems and is committed to breaking down the barriers that prevent people from using bicycles more often for transportation, recreation, and inspiration.
SOURCE Trek Bicycle Corporation
