What the hell is this frame?!

BoyBurning

Karma King
Bontrager Fan
It's a Trek of some description.

Has disc as well v mounts, wishbone rear and snake stays, top routed cables, aluminium frame, gussets, and...

...a triangular section down tube...?!

Any ideas as I'm stumped!
 

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Are you sure it's a Trek? The paintwork doesn't look good enough to me. My guess is a vanilla Taiwanese alu frame. Any numbers?
 
Re:

@hamster: Have to admit that was my first thought, as the paint really is crap quality. Possibly a cheap respray, with generic Trek decals.

@sinnerman: Again, a thought I've had. But, there's a few details that aren't quite right from what I've seen of the ZX frames. However, they're not frames I know anything about - can you be more specific about year, or is it just a hunch?
 
Re:

all the details seemed right to me on first look, i could be wrong, but they looked like Trek dropout to me. and they did have round down tube early 2000 models, which did change to more triangle as the model progressed, the same with the monostay bend too, early models didnt have them, the later models did.

The colour suggests it too, but i guess i could be wrong. For me to be sure, it would come down to disc mount which i cant make out in your pic
 

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Re:

Thanks - I'll get some pics tomorrow of the stays, and better ones in general. The ones posted were just some quick crappy ones I took to remind me to ask the questions.

Interesting from your photos, is that whilst the stays are very different, the colour is pretty similar...

Which [and this is a big assumption on my part] if the paint on my frame is original is pretty damning on Trek I'd say - it really is poor quality with little prep before paint it would seem...
 
If you look real hard, there are some real differences throughout, some of the stays are welded, some are flattened, some have a s-seat stays some dont. the colour is similar, but again i wouldnt base the definitive answer on paint. Even looking at the dropouts, they are not exact now i have been able to find better pics, but is this again could be a model year change, or not.

Paint wise, they did go through a shocking point in Early 2000s, and not just with painted aluminium on Klein's either, it always felt if you looked at them too long the paint would disappear in front of your eyes. (look at the state of the factory paint below, especially around the drop out.- Although they are built to hit a price point, and whilst handwelded they are still mass produced production.

For me it will be the disc tab placement, and only then i would still only be 98%. if its on the seat stay its a blinking good knock off imho.
 

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Re:

Just enlarging your first pic, and it does have a seat stay Disc tab, so unless its later than my time, i think its a pretty good knock off.

Shame as i thought we had solved it then.
 

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Disc tab defo on the seat stays...

I'm leaning on a cheopo generic frame, repainted and new decals at some point.

The paint by the way - it's not that it's poor quality as such in terms of durability, more that there was very poor prep. It's dimpled and thick / thin in places.

Reminds me of the shitty paint Mercedes cars used to have in late 90s early 00s - very egg shelly...

Leaning even more towards a respray I think - possibly a home shed respray at that!
 

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