So. I've just ridden a Trek Stache….

Trek do have a 19in-ish demo bike at their HQ. I saw it last night….

Ride report: (I’ve done 100 miles so far)
As I expected, it handles very well indeed. Turn in is responsive and precise and it’ll hold a line through pretty much anything I’ve given it so far. If you’ve ever ridden a Ducati motorbike, I’d liken the handling to that: Sold, stable, yet precise.
It’ll go up anything if you have the legs. The short wheelbase/tight rear end shows up here though as it likes to lift the front a bit, but if you get over the front that’s controllable. Astounding levels of grip.
Mine was noticeably perkier after I went tubeless, that lost 500-600g off the wheels alone, so it’s hardly surprising. I don’t have a decent pressure gauge, but I’m running around 15psi and that’s fine but it does feel a bit squirmy at the rear on hardpack sometimes, especially of you’re at the bottom of a sharp dip, compressing everything.
It feels quite low at the front but I like unfashionable high rise bars and stems. I’ll get used to it though, I’m not changing a £50 stem and £130 carbon bars!
Downhill or at speed it’s astonishingly fast and capable. Utterly unflappable so far (Although I did stack hard on the 2nd ride…) I keep wondering why I can catch people so easily….. 🙂
It just loves speed, the faster you go the better it gets. Trek brought us some test bikes last night and there were 2 Staches and everyone who rode them wanted one. (I was riding a Procaliber 9.8 and a Top Fuel 9.8. Good lord that Procaliber is a WEAPON! Very flighty though)
Forks are superb. I cannot fault them. You just don’t feel them doing anything, they just work. They have adjustable spring curve (Very easy to adjust) which comes in the middle setting. I went one step towards linear and they use their travel a bit more readily now. Lots of knobs to twiddle and no silly remote on the bars.
X11 drivetrain works fine, but due to it’s silly cost I’ll replace with XT when it wears out. This is my first 1x setup and I’m pleasantly surprised. There’s just enough range for me.
I keep forgetting the dropper post is there, but I don’t really need it TBH. It’s a nice toy.
There’s not much, if anything to change. Saddle maybe, but the OE one is nice. I changed the grips as the OE ones were too slim for my fat hands

I’m still hankering for a 5. My Paypal balance is up to £1100 now from selling everything that isn’t screwed to the floor.

Wondering if you’ve taken it down anything proper steep and switchbacky (Leigh Woods in Bristol, if that means anything to you)? I am riding a lot of that stuff these days, and obviously the turns can be very tight.

I know Leigh Woods fairly well yes.
I have been down a very techy and steep descent in the Cotswolds last weekend, proper bum on the rear wheel stuff. The bike was fine. The rider fell off twice! 😉
It’s a good bike for technical stuff.

Thanks PP – which Stache is your ride report for?

I was riding a Procaliber 9.8 and a Top Fuel 9.8. Good lord that Procaliber is a WEAPON! Very flighty though

Oooh tell us more 🙂

Bone setter, I’ve got the 9., but I doubt the 7 would be much different in feel.

Blobby, Trek brought us some bikes to play on for a night. We had Remdy, EX, Stache, Top Fuel, Procaliber and a couple of others. I decided to ride the bikes I’d never buy, the race bikes.
This was proper off road on trails I know well too, not fannying around.
The Procaliber is ridiculous. I’ve never ridden anything like it to be honest, it made me feel a lot fitter than I am, it just shoots up hills and flys along singletrack. It does ping around a bit sometimes though, if you get your lines wrong. Riding position is long but not as low as I expected, even with an inverted stem. Light, fast and accurate.
The Top Fuel was more of the same but with added comfort. I didn’t have time to get it set up that well for me but it’s obvious that suspension has come a long way since I bought my last FS bike in 2008! Very supple and you can’t really feel it working. The only problem I had is that I have big legs and my calf muscles rubbed on the rear stays. Great bike, would be superb for long distances at speed, but was fine on more technical drops etc. I preferred the Procaliber.

Thanks for that. Lot of money for a HT from a mainstream brand so must be bloody good to sell!

Thanks again PP – all good

It’s the 5 feedback I’m eager to hear of.

Although your ‘low front’ comment of the 9 is my impression of what the 5’s front may well be like, which for a rigid means weight forward 🙁

Peterpoddy would you say the procaliber is good for general trail fun or is it too xc specific?

The latest news for me…!
After much debate and I ternal pontification, I decided on the stache 5 with the cycle to work scheme and I placed my order …..my mate couldn’t get a krampus, so decided to get one too! As his is going to be an 18″ and mine a 19″, his landed in the country first..I went in to work this morning, and this was looking at me!

Bugger! :0)
Anyway, he loves it, and mine should be in in a few days…..I should be riding it at the weekend :0)

They are priced too high though.

Even if you break it down. As above, your prices are full rip, when you can get all that for 30% less in reality.
Plus buying a full bike should always save you over the seperate parts.
The 7 is probably the best buy, as ready to go.
The 5 is good if you want rigid.

I got a good deal on the 5 and would not cost me much more than a 7 to upgrade it to that spec with pro fork (and still have a rigid fork spare). Plus I prefer the colour to the purple.

Having said that, I love the bike. Everything is perfect but the cost.

Ride report on the 5?

We need ride reports

yamy -how do you reckon you can get the bike for 30% less?

I think he means if you were to buy all the bits separately new….

Has anyone actually ridden a 5 yet?

Not if folk are buying them

Do Trek sell the 5 as frame and fork option?

Just the black frame only, I believe, no fork

Yes 30% off is standard for most parts, I meant. CRC.

From what i’ve read, the 5 is steeper geometry due to the shorter rigid fork, so won’t handle the rough stuff as good. But is really light weight thanks to the carbon fork.

Will find out soon when I get mine.
Suspension fork will probably follow at some point though.

What size have you ordered, Yamaha?

The HA is indeed ‘steep’ as well as ‘low’ which seems to translate for me as as a heavy front and weight forward

Interested in this bike but am waiting for feedback from folk with seat-time

I think my mate is out on his tonight…I’m on duty, so can’t go with him. I can tell you this, that the front end is not heavy by any means…I had a 2 minute ride around today and can confirm that I wanted to steal it! :0) mine should be here for the weekend though, and it will be getting a good spanking, hopefully round Epping forest.

Is the carbon fork 110mm “boost”?

Carbon fork is standard 100mm spacing, not boost…only the bouncy forks are boosted to 110

Isn’t it a fatbike with thin tyres ?

I’ve fancied a Stache 5 for a while now, this thread isn’t helping matters…

The problem I had was that Trek don’t have (or at least didn’t have when I asked) a demo bike suitable for my lanky self.

Has anyone anywhere near Dundee got a 19.5″ or 21.5″ I could have a quick spin on?

“What size have you ordered, Yamaha?”

19.5″ same as you stedlocks.

Nice one :0)
Just a quick update…..mine arrived at the shop (about an hours drive ) today, and I managed to get someone to cover me so I could pick it up tonight! It is a 19.5″ and has only had the rear tyre set up tubeless at the moment…the front still has a tube till tomorrow, when I’ll sort that out. With all the crap reflectors on and without pedals, it weighs 26.5lbs….not too shabby!
I haven’t ridden it in anger yet, but my mate, who also got one on the cycle to work scheme has…..he came back grinning from ear to ear and speaking faster than I could listen! The gist of it was that it was very good! I’ll put a ride report here when I actually get to use it.

It’s sooo pornworthy though!

By the way, the 18.5″ doesn’t have the reinforcing bar between the top tube and seatpost, but mine does…..I couldn’t find that out anywhere online

How tall are you?
I demoed the 18 & 19.
Both felt good, but had 80mm stems. As I like a shorter stem I went for the 19. I’m 5’11”.

Mines come in too. 😀
Just swaping a few parts over and Heli tapping it.

I’m 6′, but have a short body and long legs….I’ll be putting a slightly longer stem on.

Pics?

Updates?

First off, I’ve never written a review, but ive read a few, so I’ll give it a bit of a go!

Me.
I’m a 46 year old bloke, who has been riding bikes my whole life…..I don’t do jumpy stuff as a rule, as I break easily nowadays and it takes a lot longer to heal! I ride long distance xc and do a bit of bikepacking, normally when I go to see interesting things/places. My main bike is a salsa spearfish, and it’s taken a couple of years to get it perfect for me.

The trek
I feel very lucky that I picked the correct size…..I am 6′ tall, but have a short body and long legs, which puts me normally right between sizes….I picked a 19.5″, and the fit is perfect……honestly, almost like a custom frame :0)
I took it out today on its first ride…..set up tubeless, but with m-520 pedals on, it weighed 26.5lbs. I have since added a brooks cambium and a set of titec J bars and an old crud catcher….I didn’t weigh it, but it’s probably a bit more now.

The ride today
I went on a normal loop that I do regularly, down to my mums house in waltham abbey, then on to my sister’s house in Loughton, with a bit of a blast round Epping forest, total of 55 miles, with about 85% off road. The first bit of canal is very sticky at the minute, then cindery after about 15 miles.
I set off, into a pretty stiff headwind, before getting onto the canal……it was very tough, and I thought I might have dropped a ricket with the stache, as I was struggling to keep a decent speed and ‘hunting’ through the gears to get a cadence that felt good. I stopped a couple of times to adjust the tyre pressure, as I thought that might help……I started with them way too soft, so much so, that the rear was squirming in the bends…..I don’t know what pressure, but I estimate around 10psi? Anyway, I pumped em up a bit at a time, until I was at around 15-18 psi, I would guess, and I seemed to find a bit of a sweet spot…..the comfort remained, the speed picked up, and all was well in the world! Since checking Strava, my speed seemed to be about 2kph down….normally, I ride off road at about 21kph and I was at nearly 20 over the whole 55miles……I’m happy with that!
Anyway, the traction is ridiculous……seriously! It will go up anything (if your legs will), but I will invest in a wide ratio cassette (11-42) when this one wears out, to give me a bail out gear.
Once in epping forest, it got really stupid…..the leaves were covering the trails, so I was struggling to pick a line at times, but the stache didn’t care….I ended up hitting drops and jumps that I would never normally attempt, let alone throw some shapes off the top of! It was like being 14 again, with my raleigh burner, and a milk crate with a plank of wood up it, jumping some mates :0)
Anyway, enough from me now, as it’s probably a shite review, but suffice to say that I am very happy with my stache 5, and will ride through winter, happy in the knowledge that I have bought well!

Hope I haven’t killed the thread…..I just wanted to put some info out there, as there is nothing UK based! :0)

I have a Stache 7 and want some rigid forks. Tempted to order the Bontrager bowie from the 5, but they are not boost and I dont want to swap hubs really. Anyone seen anything else suitable?

Nice review stedlocks.
One word sums up the stache… FUN 😀

😀
Have you done much on yours? It’s my daughters birthday today, so no riding, but I’m out again tomorrow!

One word sums up the stache… FUN

That’s very true, I’m really liking mine, I’m riding more just to get out on it.

The HA is indeed ‘steep’ as well as ‘low’ which seems to translate for me as as a heavy front and weight forward

Stop looking at the numbers! picking something to bits based on paper is daft. Try and ride one, as I said, it’s not what you think it’ll be. Trek can design a bike you know… 🙂

The key things I need to know is how rider’s weight is balanced on the Stache 5 and how that translates to how much weight is on the front

And other thing is how agile this bike (and 29+ in general) is with those mahoosive hoops – especially when compared to 27+

Your weight feels very neutral and it is easy to move about to distribute it where you want…for instance, when going up technical, rooty, muddy, leafy climbs in epping, I could pop my front wheel up and plant it, exactly where I wanted. On the twisty, technical descents, I could turn in, unweighted the rear, and hop it around, without fear of the back end stepping out or flexing the brakes on!
It’s very flickable, yet massively stable……did anyone mention how much **** Traction there is?
Going to bed early now, and out for a play tomorrow!

Really like the look of these… N+1 and all that 😉

Most people seem to be picking the rigid fork one – is that just because the price is most competitive, or 29+ doesn’t benefit as much from suspension?

Also – what’s 29+ like in mud? Conventional wisdom is a skinny tire for muddy conditions (Panaracer Trailrakers for me!).