Why 2003 Trek USPS no longer have USPS decals?

[Feanor]

If anyone was curious,

I purchased a Trek 5200 very recently (2003 model in USPS colors) and I was curious as to why all previous versions have the USPS decal prominently on the seat tube and the 03 models do not.

Found out from Trek that they had to stop using the USPS livery starting this year because of a change in the licensing fees that would have made the bike several hundred dollars more had they continued to use it

Just in case anyone was curious If you're really into the livery, just get the official jersey and knicks from the website

Feanor

 

[aychamo]

How big a bike nerd would I be if I wore that outfit on my Giant bike?

 

[Feanor]

Originally posted by aychamo
How big a bike nerd would I be if I wore that outfit on my Giant bike?

If you could do a 47Km time trial in under an hour, I don't think anyone would care

Feanor

 

[2WheelsGood]

Originally posted by Feanor
Found out from Trek that they had to stop using the USPS livery starting this year because of a change in the licensing fees that would have made the bike several hundred dollars more had they continued to use it

Wow, that's bizarre. I got one of the first '03 5200's off the line and it did have the Postal sticker on it. But now I look at the Trek web site and it not only doesn't have the sticker, the paint job is slightly different. It has those swoosh graphics where it goes from silver to blue, and mine didn't have that either. Weird. Well, if you get one from the early production run, it may still have the USPS stickers.