Fuji Bikes a steep decline in touring and road bike sales. This allowed manufacturers such as Specialized, Giant, and Trek to make inroads into Fuji's share of U.S. bicycle sales, often using frames produced at lower cost in Taiwan. With the continued rise of the yen, Fuji fell on hard times in the early 1990s. One of the last Japanese bike companies to shift production to Taiwan after the fall of the dollar, Fuji bicycles cost more in the United States than most competing brands, causing a drop in sales. Fuji bicycles produced in Taiwan were not as well regarded by U.S.
Trek Bicycle Corporation for Trek, marking the year that the company unveiled its first molded carbon fiber frame, the Trek 5000. The 5000 frameset (monocoque carbon frame plus bonded aluminum fork) had an advertised weight of . Designed by Trek but built by Brent Trimble, an outside manufacturer, the 5000 suffered enough quality problems that it was discontinued after just one year. But the lessons learned from the 5000 would prove to be instrumental in driving Trek to develop its own carbon manufacturing capabilities in the coming years. In 1990 Trek developed a new category of bicycle that combined the comfort features of