A £150 Trek Lexa fitted with £4,799 Lightweight Meilenstein Obermayer CeramicSpeed clinchers was the most entertaining bike on show at this year’s National Hill Climb Championships on Bank Road in Matlock.
The bike belongs to veteran rider, Lesley Fellows of Solihull CC, whose son David borrowed the carbon wheels from a friend to give his mum a boost after she struggled to complete the climb on a pre-race recce: “Mum was worried she might not get up the hill,” David said. “So we swapped her Shimano WH-RS100 wheels for these snazzy Lightweights a mate lent me.”
After racing her first triathlon on a Raleigh shopper, David upgraded her to this bike ahead of her second event: “He said, ‘You can’t do it on that Shopper, that’s ridiculous,’ so he found this Trek for me on eBay for £150.”
The now-discontinued Lexa was Trek’s women’s-specific aluminium endurance bike, sharing much of its DNA with the Domane AL of the same era.
Like the Domane, it used Trek’s IsoSpeed rear decoupler – a pivot that enables the seat tube to flex independently of the top tube, adding comfort.
Fellows’ bike is built around a 10-speed Shimano 105 drivetrain, paired with flat pedals.
That humble build sits in sharp contrast to the wheels beneath it. The Lightweight Meilenstein Obermayer CeramicSpeed clinchers are some of the lightest – and most exotic – rim-brake wheels ever made, weighing a claimed 475g at the front and 625g at the rear.
Exact pricing is hard to find, but reports from the time peg these wheels at around £4,799 a pair.
Even if our pricing is a mere thousand or so pounds out, wheelsets at this end of the market are usually seen finishing off £10,000 superbikes, not £150 eBay finds.
In its usual guise, the bike is set up for Fellows’ regular triathlons and a LEJOG ride last year. Fellows even claimed an age-group title last year at Dipton Mill, though she played down her chances this time around.
“There are a lot of good people in my category this year,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting anything massive, but I got up here and I’m pleased with myself.”
