The engineering is cool but not a fan of the weight.
My OCD also wishes RockShox had been the development partner in the IsoStrut.
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That is a great intro video. Looks like Jolanda had fun making it.
Hate to think of the pricing on this. Going to be a while before my wallet can absorb it.
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Love that Trek is continuing to do something different. Hopefully I can demo one, but I think I’m pretty much priced out of these and will “settle” for a Procaliber next spring.
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Not a fan of proprietary parts…will be fun when you need a shock rebuild.
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I don’t get the point of this bike.
2019 Trek Top Fuel 9.8 SL - Medium - 24.4 lbs (with tubes)
2020 Trek Supercaliber 9.8 - Medium - 24.33 lbs (with tubes)
Am I missing something here? I give up 40mm of travel to save 0.1 lbs?
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100% this ^
Top Fuel has a lockout, a 34 fork, and more travel.
I’m so confused.
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Perhaps there are more than two variables (weight & travel) to consider when evaluating a bike?
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That may well be true, but I have a hard time believing that weight and suspension aren’t the two most important considerations for XC race bikes.
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Seems like they are arguing that the rear end will be less flexy than past designs. So even though you may lock out your (or me since I’m riding one too) Top Fuel you still get a fair bit of flex from all the suspension pivots.
Seems like it will primarily appeal to someone really trying to eek out the maximum performance out of climbing when you would really want a hard tail but want a little squish on the way back down.
I think this is a miss
But on the other hand I am reminded that in digital cameras there was an obsession with how many mega pixels a camera had, and more was better
And proper photographers new that there was so much to it
So maybe if this 60mm is incredible then its a winner
But its a huge gamble; I am actually impressed that Trek had the guts to do it
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It’s an interesting bike. In context of Trek:
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Moved the 2020 Top Fuel into a longer travel, modern geo bike more meant for marathons and XC/Trail use.
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Eliminated the Procaliber SL bike/frame builds, and only offer the heavier non-SL build for 2020.
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Effectively made the 2020 Supercaliber something of a blend between the old 2017-2019 Top Fuel and Procaliber SL.
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It walks a line (maybe poorly) between hardtail, softtail, and XC fully and is maybe an interesting option when comparing to something like the Spesh Epic, Scott and such.
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It’s hard to nail down the “advantages” since it has notably more weight than the old Procal, and is surprisingly close to the old Top Fuel. But as we know, weight isn’t everything. Maybe the overall performance of the new suspension has benefits when compared to the old TF, despite the weight?
I believe Trek hit a homerun with this one. But they’ve sincerely screwed up on the specs. Supercaliber 9.9 AXS is the one that should have Fox all around and not the mechanical one. Other than that it might not be the best idea in the world to push the whole Our lighest bike ever-deal when it in fact isn’t all that light. Expecially since competitors are offering 100/100mm travel and AXS sub 9.96kg.
EDIT: But I do like the bike and if it weren’t that gruesome in price I’d buy one. But even at sponsored discount it’s way too much for what I’m prepared to spend. That is for the 9.9 SL/AXS-bikes.
Can you explain your rationale? What problem is this bike solving better than other competitor’s bikes on the market?
Sincerely curious.
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Coming from riding the BMC Teamelite, softtail, I can for sure appreciate the middle ground with 60mm travel and the possibility of not locking out as much as on a full suspension bike with their newly engineered rear triangle.
Uh…no. If you have a HT and a FS to pick from then great you could have this and a longer travel bike to choose for chunkier tracks. I’d much rather have one bike that has more travel that I can use on multiple race courses, fun rides, and training then have to mess with maintaining suspension on two different bikes. This makes no sense to me…
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I think someone serious enough to consider this bike is going to be put off by the weight, even if it’s fairly inconsequential in the end.
I do think this is one of those bikes that even if it’s not the most successful, it could start a run of similar bikes moving forward from other brands that would have a chance to be more of a success in the eyes of the consumer.
If Trek could have gotten it in the 20 - 20.5 lb weight for large frame in a top end spec, then it would have been a bike that I would have had to strongly consider for endurance mountain bike racing, like Leadville. 20 - 20.5 would get it in the range of a light, but not lightest, hardtail. My Air 9 RDO (Large) I rode at Leadville with AXS was right about 20.1 lb. My full suspension RKT 9 RDO with 90mm rear travel and a 120 mm Fox SC is under 24 lbs, so don’t see the Supercaliber fitting in to my current quiver.
Lots of questions about this bike, but I would definitely like to demo it.
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True. The proof will be in the pedalstrokes.