Trek World 2016 – Highlights of the future

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Trek World is Trek’s annual house show in Milton Keynes. It’s open to bike shops and media for a couple of days, before allowing the public in for a ticket-only event at the weekend.

There was a lot to see in the polished concrete aisles. Here are just a few of the highlights.

Stache line now includes carbon Stache! We’ll bring you the full story shortly, but Trek’s 29+ hardtail, with the super short chainstays, now gets a carbon framed version. You like? We like… Trek is among a very small number of companies championing the 29+ platform, but it seems that it’s making a good push of it, given the investment that the carbon Stache must have taken.

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Carbon Stache. Quite lovely.
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The rest of the Stache line looks pretty good.

And this isn’t just far away, it’s Trek’s kid’s fat bike, the Farley 24 which ‘crushes sandcastles and snow forts’ apparently. Those are 4in tyres on it.

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Trek’s Farley 24 kid’s fat bike.

At the other end of the fat spectrum is this Farley EX 8 – which boasts 120mm up front and the same out back, along with 3.8in Bontrager Hodag tyres. If you’re going to be silly – you might as well get really silly, right?

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The Farley EX 8. Full suspension fat bike.
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Let’s not forget that Trek does a huge range of mountain bike hardtails too.

All of Trek’s chunky full suspension bikes, like the Slash, Remedy and Fuel EX get a stiffer, straighter downtube. It’s stiff (and it arguably looks a lot better than the swan neck downtubes of before) but it does mean that the fork crown will hit the downtube in a crash. To prevent this, Trek has a new ‘Knock Block’ technology where the top headset cup has some stops built into it. A replaceable stop is bolted onto the frame to limit lock-to-lock travel. If you crash really hard though, it’ll snap off like a mech hanger. The downtube is still then protected by armour on the downtube to keep the frame safe.

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It’s all hidden away with only the one bolt showing on the top tube.
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The replaceable stop bolts into the frame.

Talking of the new bikes with straight downtubes, we hear that the new Slash (far right) is actually testing out to be stronger and stiffer than Trek’s Session downhill bike. The Slash is one of the machines that you’ll be seeing at the enduros.

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A current Session and a brand new Slash

Bontrager clothing and shoes.

Not just a component name at Trek, the Bontrager line has grown hugely in recent years, handling all of the clothing, helmets and footwear for Trek now.

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Lookin’ good on the trail

Bontrager Shoes

The Bonty shoe range is pretty huge these days, with (nearly) everything from Tour de France race slippers to full-on winter boots.

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Bontrager Cambion shoes. All round mountain bike trail shoes. Stiffness is a ‘mere’ 12 out of 14.

The Bontrager women’s Tario and men’s Rhythm shoes are really interesting. Both feature a rubberised surface that’s part of the seamless fabric, so that there aren’t any stitching weak or hot spots in the forefoot. Another great plus is that there aren’t any vents over the toes. Good for the colder months we reckon.

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Bontrager Women’s Tario shoes
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New Rhythm on the right. Too subtle? Just scroll down…

Old Man Winter Boots – the On my way! boots (which autocorrect keeps changing to ‘On my way!’) feature a fleece lined, Thinsulate removable inner bootie and a bigger toe box for toe-wiggling room in thicker socks.

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Need more winter protection, how about the O.M.W. boots (Old Man Winter)?
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Can’t accuse Bontrager of being dull. These Tinari women’s MTB shoes are eye catching.
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Love or hate? They come in black too, but these are way more orangey! Which must be good, right?
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This G-Mud tyre had skipped our notice in the past, but it’s on the shopping list already.

Bontrager Helmets

The big Bonty helmet news for 2017 is MIPS. With all the new helmets going MIPS, more protection is better, right?

The Quantum helmet is new for 2017. £79.99 including MIPS and it comes in five colours. There’s a FREE(!) crash replacement scheme if you crash it in the first year. Great work.

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Quantum – comes in green, blue, yellow, grey and black
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The Rally is Bontrager’s top-end trail helmet. It gets MIPS and there’s a one-year crash replacement policy too.
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Something must match your bike here, right?
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Chipps has his eyes on this top. We’re not going to show you the modelling photos.

Trek Powerfly.

Sure to cause either great excitement or horror, depending on your point of view of e-mountain bikes, is this Powerfly 9 LT Plus. It’s got the chunky tyres, a dropper and 150mm of travel. Oh, and a Bosch motor. How about some self-assisted bike park runs, eh?

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Love or hate? There’s probably not much in between for this one.
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Trek makes some very fast bikes. See issue 105 for our Trek ProCaliber review
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If you want a more special machine, try Trek’s full-custom Project One service.

Tracy Moseley was on hand to answer questions about her new race bike, but she also had a couple of her T-Mo Racing team mates with her. Meg and Hattie. Keep an eye out for these girls – National Youth Champions in downhill and XC racing respectively, though Meg wants to try cyclocross and Hattie likes a bit of enduro too. They’re definitely ones to watch…

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T-Mo racing’s Meg and Hattie… remember the names.
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You try to take photos of Tracy’s bike and get the woman herself larking around instead… sheesh!
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Blurry with excitement, here’s the cockpit of Tracy’s new race bike. Di2 1×11

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Tracy Moseley’s new Trek Slash. 160mm travel with 29er wheels. Shimano Di2 1×11 and new 11-46 cassette.
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Slash – comes in red too.
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Bontrager isn’t just XC – there are flat pedals and dropper posts coming out now.
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And there are silicone grips too if you do like that kind of fast racing stuff.

Bontrager Bat Cages – apparently the old Spring Classics road guys have been asking for these old Trek bottle cages for years as they were deemed the only cages that’ll keep your bottle on your bike over Paris Roubaix’s cobbles. Enduro racers take note – someone found the original mould in the back of a shed and the Bat Cages are back!

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One! Ha-ha-hah. Two! Ha-ha-hah…
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And, finally, stay tuned to our sister site – grit.cx for the latest Trek cyclocross news…
Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 22 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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