In 1976, five employees worked inside a red barn in Waterloo, Wisconsin, building steel touring frames by hand. They wanted to match the best bikes coming out of Europe. They likely weren’t thinking about anniversaries or what lay ahead for the company.
Fifty years later, Trek is marking the occasion with a set of bikes that quite literally carry the company’s history on their frames.
The collection
The 50th Anniversary Collection will be celebrated on three limited models: The First 50 Project One ICON, The First 50 Replica, and No. 76 Project One ICON.
50 years ago, we started building bikes. Then we started building something bigger.
This is the journey. Thank you for being part of it.
— Trek Bicycle (@TrekBikes) February 10, 2026
The First 50 ICON and its Replica counterpart turn the frame into a layered archive. Multiple graphics stretch across the tubes. That includes the original barn, the founders, youth cycling programs, sustainability efforts, and more. Each little symbol is to mark a chapter in the company’s evolution from a regional frame builder to a massive global brand.
You could probably spend weeks noticing new details between rides. Later this year, a coffee table book will expand on those illustrations, unpacking the stories behind them.
While The First 50 speaks of the history of the brand, No. 76 is a little different. Built on the Madone SLR 9 AXS platform, it nods directly to 1976 with the original Trek logo, a brass-plate headbadge graphic, and the deep heritage blue associated with the brand’s earliest bikes.
Both ICON models include anniversary details. That ranges from numbered frames to special-edition saddles and wheel graphics.
To be ridden at the Tours de France
Lidl-Trek’s men’s and women’s WorldTour teams will race The First 50 ICON at the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes this summer, bringing the artwork onto cycling’s biggest stage. And don’t forget, there are now three Canadians on Lidl-Trek. Oro Medonte, Ont.’s Ava and Bella Holmgren, plus the latest recruit, Osgoode, Ont.s’ Derek Gee-West.
Trek MADONE SL 7 50TH $8,0000
Trek MADONE SLR 9 AXS 50TH $21,400
MADONE SLR 9 AXS NO76 $21,400
The bikes are available for preorder on Trek.com through April 13, with deliveries beginning in June.