A little off course, but does TREK not use integrated headsets?

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BILL NIKO, YOU WILL NOT EVER BE FORGOTTEN.

yes

I may be off on this - but I think they use them on their alum alloy lower-end bikes made outside of the United States. Don't think Trek would really care for the benefits of integrated headsets because their forks tend to be non-bike specific and the cleanlines that integrated headsets offers will be negated... plus it seems like Trek isn't really concerned about being the lightest - Bontrager still doesn't use a composite steerer in even its best fork. Tends to be more conservative.

(they had a unique headset in the 5900 for a few years tho... bottom plate was glued in I think)

ok, they are a bit lighter and some people like the look better, but to call this benefits
Maybe it's not the real ww-spirit, but I have both the integrated and the standard headsets on several bikes and I like the standard verion much much better. Better sealing and much longer bearinglife.

No you sounded pretty much on-the-money to me. Some of the the low-end treks for 2005 came out with an integrated setup. The higher end all carbon framed bikes have non-integrated. The Discovery boys have Chris Kings where the production bikes have cane creek headsets. Pretty crazy considering the sticker price for an SSL. I'd figure for $7500 I could get top shelf componentry.....guess not.

And I do believe that you are right about the 5900's having the bottom cup glued in for a few years. (That's just crazy.)

what other benefits are there aside from small weight savings and comestics?

*wouldn't make or break my decision to buy a particular frame tho - both work fine and has lil weight in my deicison process*

good answer
Maybe the choise depends on the kind of riding you do. I ride in bad weather quite a lot and use the powercleaner on my bike a lot
A good headset will surfive this abuse, but the integrated headsets I have (had) need bearingoverhauling and replacement quite a lot.
Maybe the CK perdido is the answer to this problem, if you could find a bike that is made for it... because on a lot of bikes the lines of the integrated headset look much better.

what is a powercleaner? sorry english is my 2nd language

I think he means a high pressure sprayer that he uses to clean his bike. A lot of pros used to (and some still do) use pressurized deisel to spray their bikes down after a race. Some use a bio-friendly solvent to spray them down.

drjones96 is right, it is water from a hose with quite a lot of force and a little soap so the bike is clean very fast. Maybe not the most bikefriendly handling but if you have done hard training in bad weather you don't feel like using an lot of time to clean your bike. You do have to maintain your bike a bit more carefully and make sure that everything is lubed but. (for me it's ofthen this or not cleaning at all because I have to go to work after my training etc. so I think its a good solution)
Diesel is actually a good solvent. My LBS uses it for very dirty bikes that customers come in with. (usually normal bikes, not racing bikes)

funny that - all books and sites say you should not use high pressure hoses as it can push water into areas where there are bearingseg hubs, BB and so on

I suppose you just use it on the rest of the bike and do those with no pressure!

no, I just use it on the whole bike but make sure not to spray directly on the bearings. Also the cleaner I use is not very powerfull but stong enough to be effective. If you regularly overhaul your bike there shouldn't be any problems.

If you watch most pro team mechanics they all use power washers to clean the bikes. Sure, you don't fire it full blast into the bearings, but it's easy to avoid doing that while cleaning a bunch of bikes very quickly.