NSMB.e.MAGAZINE - Freeride, Extreme and North Shore style Mountain Biking

If you ever wanted confirmation that the Shore scene is getting international recognition and respect, it arrived last week in the form of some folks from Trek Bikes.

The Wisconsin-based company that made a name for itself with road bikes for Lance Armstrong and XC bikes for Roland Green is looking to carve out a rather sizeable chunk of the freeride pie for itself with a new attitude, new components, and, more importantly, an all-new bike.

Seven members of Trek’s inner circle, including product manager John Riley, marketing guy and former editor of Mountain Bike magazine Zap Espinoza, Chad Price and John Balmer from the Bontrager components division of Trek, and a gaggle of engineers showed up in North Van with two new Trek bikes and a ton of new Bontrager components for 2005.

I was one of three people who got to test out the goods, including Radek Burkat from the competition, and Mitchell Scott from bike magazine. Up to this point, nobody other than a handful of Trek staff and team rider Andrew Shandro had gone for a spin on the new bikes, let alone beat the crap out of them on the Shore.

The biggest thing that will be rolling out of Trek for 2005 - literally - is a new long-travel, multi-pivot bike that offers 7” of travel, front and rear. The bike was designed with extensive input from Shore local, freerider extraordinaire, and Red Bull Rampage second place finisher Shandro, who was brought on board at Trek two years ago specifically for this project.

During that time, Trek revamped its entire full suspension line from the ground up. Perhaps the most noticeable change is the decision to abandon the single-pivot Diesel frame Shandro had been riding in favour of an all-new four-bar linkage bike.

The completely revamped, and as-yet unnamed, rig is designed as a pure freeride bike with 7” of front travel, courtesy of a Manitou Sherman Breakout single-crown, through-axle fork, and 7” of rear travel provided by a Manitou Swinger 6-Way coil shock.

As mentioned, the biggest change to the bike was the addition of another pivot to what is effectively the same rear linkage design used on Trek's current Liquid all-mountain bikes.

Adjustable drop-outs mean options for riders

Now sporting four pivot points, the rear end uses 1” Igus cartridge bearings on the three larger pivots, with a bushing on the smaller pivot at the bottom of the seatstay for added stiffness.

In order to minimize flex, the swingarm rockers are clamped onto the bearings to make them a structural element of the bike. That also serves to unify the left and right sides of the rear end.

A new bridge between the rockers was added to the first version of the bike after Shandro told the engineers he wanted to further increase rear end stiffness.

The bearings are designed to be durable and long lasting, but also easy for riders to service at home.

Trek has built the frame to take some serious punishment, with shaped tubing (ovalized around the headtube going down to rectangular at the bottom bracket) and large seatstays that will take repeated drops. There’s plenty of room between those stays for a 2.5” tire, and ISCG mounts are standard so you’ll be able to set this bike up with a chainguide.

The new ride will be available as a complete bike at two price points, for approximately US$2,000 (CDN$2,800) or US$3,000 (CDN$4,000), or as a frame only; pricing has yet to be determined on the frameset.

The anodized finished product will be available in small (15.5”), medium (17.5”), and large (19.5”) sizes; Shandro's flame paint job was a one-off.

Spec is still being worked out, but here's what Trek knows so far. Everything will be available in about December of this year, and will come with 7" Manitou forks, with the models TBD.

Big pivots with big bearings that are clamped in place

The higher-end bike will most likely come with some Saint components (the only sure thing right now is cranks), and a Manitou Swinger 6-Way shock. The entry model will have Hayes, Bontrager, and SRAM 7 goodies, and a Swinger 4-Way coil shock.

First impressions of the new bike
Designed for middle-ring climbing, the new 7-and-7 Trek is what John Riley calls a “pedalable freeride bike.” I didn't have much of a chance to pedal the bike uphill other than on the trail, but weight was reasonable for the prototypes, and Riley is hoping to get the production version under 40 lbs. With the SPV Manitou shock and forks, Shandro says he can climb without any bob whatsoever.

For those of you concerned about the durability of a 7" single-crown fork, consider this: it's pretty unlikely that Trek would be designing a line of bikes around the OnePointFive standard if it wasn't confident in the fork's ability to take big hits.

Manitou also wouldn't be investing the kind of money it is if OnePointFive was just a fad. The Answer site claims the new interface is 44% stronger and 138% stiffer than an 1 1/8” headtube of the same weight, while providing increased strength, control, steering precision, and durability. That's all well and good, but time is going to be the true deciding factor when it comes to the long-term staying power of OnePointFive frames and components.

Whaddya think, boys? Two thumbs up, say Shandro and Mitchell Scott, who were enjoying their new toys

A couple of runs down Seymour - on a work in progress - was only enough to get an impression of this bike. To really know how it rides, how it tracks, how it climbs, and how it feels in the air would take some time and fine-tuning. Based on limited saddle time, however, I can say this: the bike was nimble in the corners, it handled well at speed, it didn't have any unpleasant characteristics, and the front end wasn't too high or raked out. The rear end tracked well, and took the square-edged hits and drops that are a part of everyday Shore riding very well.

After spending some time with Shandro, I also came away believing he knew what he was doing when he said that he wanted to slacken the headtube a degree and lengthen the wheelbase on the second-generation bike I was riding by half an inch. And that in conjunction with the Trek engineering staff, they were going to come up with a solid bike. A good prototype is going to be a great finished product that should work well for anyone who wants to go up without any (real) problem and still bomb down the hill confidently.

What does all of that mean at the end of the day? Big travel doesn't have to be heavy, flexy, or a pain in the ass to pedal - but it requires more than a single pivot to work well, at least as far as Trek is concerned. Great new technology like OnePointFive is gaining acceptance from big manufacturers, and the bike is incorporating design input from someone who knows the Shore. To me, that sounds like a hell of a good combination. I doubt I'm the only one. So don't be surprised if the new 7-and-7 is a hot item on Christmas lists this year.

Be sure to check back later this week for the low-down on a bunch of new freeride components from Bontrager that I also got a chance to try.

In the meantime, I'd like to send a big shout-out to the guys from Trek for making the trip up here - and for realizing there's no better proving ground in the world for big bikes than the North Shore.