Bicycles Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who build and repair bicycles, people who train cycling, or commute on bicycles. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Looking through the Trek archives, I see they have frame materials described as:
How do these compare to other manufacturers who list the alloy number (6061, 6069, 7005, etc) and double/triple butted?
It sounds like they compare very directly with other manufacturers who list the alloy and butting, except that Trek doesn't release that. My guess is that some of those descriptions actually overlap and are just marketing hype that changes every couple of years. Your best bet would probably be to contact Trek directly and and see if they will "translate" their marketing terminology for you. Based on that forum, it looks like some people have already had limited success with that.
This link might be helpful. It describes only two grades of alloy for their current bikes. The higher grade being hydroformed. Hydroforming allows profiling and shaping of the tubes. Its comparative to blow moulding.
With respect to then older tubesets - I seem to remember the differences being grade and butting. The higher end frames using lighter tubesets and triple butted. Most bike manufacturers in those days bought in their high end tubes from possibly the likes of Easton.
