Longtermer: Trek Lush Carbon 650b WSD

The Trek Lush Carbon is a very different bike to the ones I normally ride. It’s my first 27.5” bike for a start. I also usually ride a small bike and this is a medium (The sizing starts at a diminutive 14″), so, with the bigger wheels it looked huge to me. However, after deciding that the standover was fine due to the curved top tube (this is one part of Trek’s womens’ specific design), I reckoned that this might be a bike I could get on with.

The Lush looks good, the all black appeals to my inner goth and it’s so light! Carbon is another first for me. I have an old back injury which means I rarely even try to lift any bike, other than to get it into the car, and tend to avoid rides which might involve a carry. Maybe that could change if the bike were light enough. It’s not all carbon, of course – the chainstay and the EVO linkage are alloy and magnesium respectively.

At first glance some of the peripheries looked a bit suspect; I wasn’t sure about the basic looking foam grips or that saddle. But they’re minor aspects that can soon be changed if needed.

What is a longterm test?

ESI Racers Edge grips, which seems to translate to ‘sponge’. A definite, but minor, candidate for change.

My first outing on the Lush was a short blast in the Dales on a blustery day. The climbs were mostly on tarmac, with some bridleway. The descents were muddier than usual and there was a disappointing amount of pedalling to be done down the hills against the wind.

The bike didn’t feel too big, indeed I’d moved the saddle forwards a bit pre-ride and I had to stop to slide it back to its original position.

Another first for me is the 1×11 set-up. On this ride there was a big enough spread of gears for me and I only needed to shift down to the dinner plate at the back a couple of times. I noticed the difference on the undulating dales roads, where normally I’d be shifting up and down at the front as I went over the crests and through the dips. With this set up just a few clicks on the back were needed each time, however the XT shifters were so smooth that with a long thumb stroke you could shift a panic load of gears at once, and with the 1×11 gear ratio being so spread out that made a big difference at those times of non concentration when suddenly presented with a steep climb.

The suspension setup has been designed from scratch with the female rider in mind; the Re-Aktiv shock tuned so that lighter riders don’t have to ride with lower pressures. Of course just being light isn’t necessarily an exclusively female trait and neither is being a bit over weight but Trek are designing for the largest part of the bell curve here and for this bike a lighter rider is the intended end user. I haven’t changed the factory settings at all and it was a comfortable ride, I even remembered to use the dropper post on the last descent, which is of course, much easier to access with no gear shifter on the left.

I’m happy with this bike ‘out of the box’ so far and after it’s first ride. I was right about the saddle though and I’ll be changing those grips soon.

Check back in a few weeks for report 2 featuring my first ‘mods’ plus a detailed ride report.

The Spec:

Frame: WSD OCLV Mountain Carbon main frame & seatstay, alloy chainstay & magnesium EVO link
Fork: Fox Evolution Series 32 Float, CTD
Shock: Fox Performance Series Float, DRCV, RE:aktiv, CTD
Wheels: Bontrager Rhythm Comp Tubeless Ready (142mm rear & 15mm Front)
Tyres: Bontrager XR3 Expert, Tubeless Ready
Shifters: SRAM X1
Mech: SRAM X1
Crank: SRAM X1
Saddle: Bontrager Evoke 2 WSD
Post: RockShox Reverb Stealth
Brakes: Shimano XT
Grips: ESI Racers Edge