Trek Goes Full Susser Fat with the Farley EX

Last year, Trek launched the Farley Fat Bike. Due to being a massive company that designs and makes nearly every aspect of its bikes, from tyres to handlebars, Trek chose to champion the slightly better rolling characteristics of 27.5in wheels on the 4in tyre platform – something we’d not seen anyone else do.

Trek Farley EX

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This year it has gone further with a 27.5in full suspension fat bike, the Farley EX. It’s finding that fat bike sales are its biggest growing category and that may customers aren’t from snowy places, but often from more desert states like Arizona, and they use these bikes for all-round trail use. The new Farley EX has all of the gadgets that people are used to with its regular bikes, like the APB rear pivot, the Full Floater suspension and Re:Activ shock giving up 120mm of travel, matched by the Bluto fork up front.

And that’s the Farley 9.8, with a full carbon frame, new Bontrager Drop Line dropper and X01/X1 transmission. Below is the Farley EX8, with an alloy frame and a slightly more down to earth spec.

Trek Farley

The Farley hardtail also gets a touch up, with room for the new 1240g, 27.5in, 4.5in Barbegazi tyres (which weigh less than the 26in versions). At its top Farley 9.9in spec (which is a USA only spec) the whole bike will build into a 22lb machine(!). With a 1900g frameset (so, frame and fork), HED 27.5in Big Half Deal carbon fat rims weighing 495g each and 1877g a wheelset and SRAM’s new Eagle it’s quite a race bike. It’ll take up to a 5in tyre too.

Bontrager Drop Line

The new Bontrager Drop Line dropper post offers 100, 125 and 150mm drop versions. It’s an air-sprung, cable operated, hydraulic system with a very neat cable attachment system. The ball-end of the cable anchors in the base of the post, so swapping the post out, or even between bikes, is easy. It’ll be Stealth only.

The Drop Line features an under-bar lever and Trek reckons that the post is field-serviceable with only a couple of Allen keys. Post return speed is externally controllable too.

There are other new Bontrager Line components too. Stems have gone up to 35mm although Trek says that this is partly aesthetic and that the 35mm handlebars are designed to be stronger while not being any stiffer than the 31.8 offerings as it was felt that some 35mm bars are too stiff. The bars will come in 750mm and a whopping 820mm wide.

The fun doesn’t stop there. Bontrager Wheelworks has been getting on to the wider wheel world. After testing with the XC race team, there will be a new Kovee XXX wheelset with a 29mm internal diameter and a 27mm height. The rims are 375g each for a 29er with a wheelset coming in at 1390g with Boost DT 240s hubs.

There’s a more chunky wheelset for the heavier and more careless rider. The Line XXX wheelset is 1625g and features a 29mm inner and a 29mm height. The whole range features ‘Impact Specific Resin’ designed to take harder hits and the Line XXX rim weighs a mere 435g in a 29er. This will also come in a 27.5in version, (though the Kovee won’t)

The Bontrager SE and XR4 tyres get a tweak too, with a great, chunky profile and a 2.4in width in either 27.5in or 29in, with the 29er version also coming in 2.55in and weighing under 900g. The Chupacabra, seen on the new Stache last year will now also come in a 27.5 x 2.8in too.

And finally, there’s a Bontrager Line Pro flat pedal, featuring a narrow(ish) profile and sealed cartridge bearings.