- With Trek they're massive company.
But...uhm...(stutters)
(laughs)
Yeah, we can cut.
I'll just finish it up with chains stay.
(upbeat music)
Hi everyone, I'm Mike Kazimer.
Welcome to the Pinkbike Enduro and Free Ride Field Test
taking a look at bikes with more than
160 millimeters of rear travel
ones that are focused on descending,
but can still be pedaled to the top.
Behind me, I've got the new Trek Slash.
This 2021 model has seen some significant updates
over the previous version in the form of
longer and slacker geometry,
a little bit more travel and also has bonus snack storage.
The bike's intended purpose is still the same,
designed to be an Enduro race bike,
or just a bike for someone who wants to go fast
on some rowdy terrain.
Let's start with the suspension.
This bike still uses Trek ABP suspension design
its active braking pivot.
Basically it has the pivot around the rear axle.
The overall suspension layout of the Slash
is really similar to the previous version
and yes, it still looks a lot like a session.
For this version, they focused on the shock itself.
In this case at the higher end level,
you get RockShox Super Deluxe through shaft shock.
Basically what that means is that the damper shaft
exits out the bottom of the shock.
It means that there's one solid column of oil
moving up and down
as the bike goes through its travel
and that's designed just to provide
extra consistent performance.
And the internals of that shock
are a lot like RockShox, Deluxe shock.
So a lot of Deluxe and Super Deluxe is going on there,
but basically they just tried to get
the best tune they could for this bike
as a numbered rebound dial,
which is one of those clever little things
that I'm not sure why people haven't done before.
So basically if the setup guide says,
you need to run seven clicks of rebound,
you can just look at the dial and turn to seven.
It also has a three position compression switch.
So when the shocks are in the more open position,
you can select from a firm,
kind of medium and a soft setting.
So you can really fine tune the bike
for the terrain that you're riding.
Let's dig a little bit into
the frame details of the new Slash.
There's aluminum and carbon models.
Right here, we've got the carbon 9.9 XO1 version
biggest feature of both the aluminum and the carbon ones.
Biggest new feature is the fact that
there's in-frame storage.
Little compartments sits underneath
with a water bottle cage.
You just easily undo it, pops off.
And then you can access your tools and whatever
other goodies you want to stash in there.
It's obviously not a new concept,
we've seen it for specialized in the past,
but I think it's a great idea.
And the more companies that do it, the better,
just nice to not have to carry a pack
and a bunch of stuff on your back
when you're going out for shorter ride.
Trek also refine their knock block technology.
Basically that's a little stop up here.
That limits how far your handlebars can turn.
The previous version was kind of polarizing
because it stopped the bars from turning
a little too soon for some riders liking.
A really steep switchback,
you could encounter it
and kind of hinder the bike's handling.
This new one has more range of motion,
I think is up to 77 degrees.
So the bars can turn pretty far
before you hit that block there.
And if you don't like it, it's removable
because they've changed the shape of the down tube.
Used to be straight, now it's got this little curve.
So if you took the knock block out,
you can do bar spins and x-up's to your heart's content.
Other frame details include threaded bottom bracket.
That's something that a lot of riders
are gonna be happy to hear,
pretty good frame protection as well.
That chain slap guard is nice, you got
generous down tube protection.
You can remove it if you want it to save a few grams,
but I'm not sure why you'd want to do that.
It might as well protect your frame.
And the down tube protection goes all the way
from the basically the top of the down tube to the bottom.
So if you're tossing this in the back of a shuttle truck,
it's getting knocked around,
it's gonna help protect things from getting scuffed
or potentially broken.
The frame still has adjustable geometry
via this little chip here. It's called a Mino link chip.
So it can have a high and a low setting
that changes the head angle by about a half a degree.
I feel like most riders will put it
in the Slack position and call it good,
but there is some adjustability built in there.
And then the last frame detail it's gonna be
the move to 34.9 seat tube diameter.
We're starting to see that across the board from numerous
manufacturers as dropper post lengths get longer.
It's nice to have that bigger diameter,
lets you put a bigger, more robust post in there.
This size large comes with a 170 millimeter dropper post,
we'll talk more about dropper post lengths
and exactly what fits this frame
a little later on in this video.
I mentioned that the Slash received
the longer and slacker treatment,
so what that means the head angle now sits
at 64.1 degrees in the slack setting,
using that little flip chip you can steepen it up
to 64.6 degrees if you felt like it,
the reach on a size large now 486 millimeters,
it actually gives it the longest reach number
out of all five bikes and this little roundup.
Chainstay length is the same for all the bikes
in the lineup and that's at 437 millimeters.
Trek also steepened up the seat tube angle,
it now sits at 75.6 degrees.
So not quite as steep
as we're seeing from some other companies,
but it is significantly steeper than the previous version.
And it's worth mentioning that Trek sizing,
they've added an extra size in there.
So there's a medium-large.
So now go small, medium, medium-large, large, XL.
So total of five sizes should allow this bike to be,
to fit to a wider range of rider heights.
This bike here, this is the 9.9 XO1 version.
And that retails for 8,000 US dollars.
I know that's a lot of money,
but the good news is Trek offers
the entry-level Trek Slash Aluminum for $3,500.
So there's a wide range of price points available
for this bike.
What do you get for $8,000?
Well, start off upfront, you've got a RockShox ZEB.
That has 170 millimeters of travel.
It's got that Super Deluxe Shock that I mentioned before
you have Bontragers line carbon wheels.
You also have an XO1 drive train.
That's a Sram XO1, so one drive train 12 speeds.
Brakes are handled by Sram as well.
And those are the Code RSCs,
there's a Bontrager carbon bar
and a Bontrager line dropper post.
So that's some house brand components in there,
but the suspension, the drive train
and the brakes are all high end components.
And that's where that higher price comes from.
Total weight for this bike as it sits here,
32.5 pounds for a size large.
That's the second lightest bike
that we have in this five bikes roundup.
(upbeat music)
Getting the Slash set up was nice and easy,
I ended up running 30% sag in the rear shock.
One thing I did do is trim the handlebars down
they're a massive 820 wide out of the box,
which it's a little wide for my taste.
I like wide bars, but 820 is a little excessive.
So I trim those down to my preferred 780 millimeter width.
The bike also comes with a 35 millimeter stem,
I prefer a 40, so I switched that out.
Just little things just to make the bike feel
more comfortable and to suit my needs,
but nothing out of the ordinary, pretty straight forward.
I didn't need to do anything with the volume spacers
or tokens or anything like that,
out of the box it was ready to roll.
(upbeat music)
The Slash is billed as an Enduro race bike,
but even at Enduro races,
there's some climbing involved.
So I took this thing on plenty of long climbs
just to see how it felt, not a ton of suspension bob,
you can run that in the open setting,
especially if you're using that middle compression setting,
they've added a little more anti squat to this one
compared to the previous version.
So it's a decent climber.
You can just kind of sit and spin.
You don't need to worry about it
just feeling like you're hopping around in a water bed.
The one thing that kind of separates this bike
from some of the other bikes
in this test that have steeper seat tube angles.
You do notice the front end length.
I think this one sits with the top tube
length around 649 millimeters.
You can compare that to the Propain that we also had on test
and that one's 612 millimeters.
Pretty decent difference.
And what that means all those numbers,
is that on this one you feel a little more stretched out.
I was able to slam the seat forward,
get a good climbing position.
And one that worked well for my five foot 11 inch height.
But I did feel like when I was sitting,
there's just more room and that's alright
if you're climbing up some fireroad climbs
or grinding up a paved road,
but when it does get tighter,
sometimes that front wheel feels
like it's a little further out there.
Like just kind of has a more lazy feel to it
than one with a steeper seat tube angle.
So I think they could've gone a little steeper,
but again the seats have rails for reason,
you can slam it forward and you can get a climbing position
that feels pretty good for long days.
Just it's not quite as steep as some of the others
that we're reviewing here.
(upbeat music)
I spent a lot of time and a previous version of the Slash,
so with this one is interesting to see how that felt.
One thing's for certain, it hasn't lost any speed.
If anything, it's only gotten faster,
kind of lets you carry more speed than you think
until you kind of take a look at the surroundings
around you whizzing by.
I think that's my favorite trait of it.
Has a really precise, stiff feel that just lets you
let off the brakes, tracks,
straight down the fall line if you want,
but it's still pretty easy to corner, easy to maneuver.
It does feel a little bit longer cause that longer reach,
but shorter back-end you can still slap bumps,
jumps really well.
Out of all the bikes here,
I think this would be towards the top of my list
as far as the bike that I would be most likely
to take into the bike park,
love to spend a day hitting some A-Line laps
and then mixing it up with some super techy trails.
This bike can do it all.
You also have that three position compression switch
on the shock and that does make a difference.
Most of the time I just left it in the middle setting,
called it good, but for more kind of flowy,
just straight up jump lines, you can firm things up.
It gives a little bit more pop.
And then for when it was really wet
and kind of needed some extra traction,
I could put it in the negative setting
as the lightest compression setting
really helped that wheel stay stuck to the ground.
I think that's one of the things
that helps this bike stand out
is that tune on that shock.
Works really well, very well suited to the bike,
just because it's the right amount of traction and support.
I didn't need to mess with
volume spacers like I mentioned before,
but there is room to further fine tune it
for riders or racers who really want this bike
perfectly matched to their needs.
One area that I think could be
tweaked a little bit in future versions
is that chainstay length.
It is fun, it's a little bit shorter,
kind of easy to slap it around
in the steeps is nice
because it really lets you curve the bike.
But I just have a feeling that taller riders
might want a little bit more length out back.
Something we're seeing from a lot of companies is
different chainstay lengths for different size bikes.
And in my mind that makes a lot of sense.
Overall this bike feels like a race bike should,
but you can still take it out for non-race runs
and have a good time.
(upbeat music)
For the time test laps, I ended up with
my third fastest time on the Slash
just 1.6 seconds off the top time.
I think those top three bikes,
they're all so close that kind of
when extra pedal stroke here
could probably make the difference,
but definitely feels fast and in that top three,
I think that's a good number.
(upbeat music)
Time to go over some of the parts in this bike.
Let's start with that Super Deluxe Shock
mentioned a bunch of times before,
but I was really impressed with it.
It worked well.
It still has some of that proprietary Trek technology.
You could put something different on here
if you were totally adverse to that,
but it's been working great.
The tune is well matched the bike,
so good job to Trek and the RockShox engineers,
they got that dialed.
ZEB up front worked well also out of the five bikes we have
the other ones all have FOX 38,
so it sounds kind of nice to give this ZEB a try.
I'm able to find my happy place with both forks.
There's a slight difference in how they feel on the trail.
Kind of hard to put into words, but overall,
easy to set up, issue free.
The Zeb worked well on this bike.
Let's talk about that dropper post.
This has Bontragers new line elite dropper post.
They said they sped up the return speed,
it's still not quite as quick
as some of the other options out there.
And then there's also the fact that
the overall length is fairly long.
This came with 170 millimeter drop, which was alright,
in my ideal world it would come with one
that has 200 millimeters of drop.
So I actually had a Bontrager one, the new one on hand.
So I put the 200 millimeter one in here,
I couldn't fit it.
I didn't have enough insertion room to make that post work.
I ended up trying a one-up dropper post that worked,
so I could run an extra long dropper.
But overall that line elite dropper
and I feel like there's still room for improvement there.
This one comes with 175 millimeter cranks.
Now that's not a huge deal for larger, taller riders
longer cranks are alright.
But you gotta remember, this is an Enduro race bike.
You're gonna be going through mixed terrain,
a lot of times chunky rocky terrain.
It's only five millimeters,
but that can't be the difference between
smacking a rock and not smacking a rock.
I think just speccing 170s
would be the way to go.
(upbeat music)
What are the pros of the Trek Slash?
Well i'd say that light and stiff frame.
Definitely one of the highlights.
It just encourages you to go fast
that in conjunction with that great shock tune
it feels like a race bike should.
Also the fact that it has a wide range of sizes available,
five sizes and in carbon and aluminum.
So basically there's a Slash for a wide range of riders.
In frame storage is also a great feature,
nice to just be able to get things off
your back and into the frame.
Yeah and that's available on the carbon and aluminum frames.
(upbeat music)
As far as cons go, I'd say that the seat tube angle
still could be a little bit steeper
that would just improve the fit during climbing.
And the final little nitpick would be chainstay length.
I'd love to see a version of this
that has some adjustability in the chainstay length.
Again, just to allow to get a more balanced feel
for all rider sizes.
(upbeat music)
Who's the Slash for?
Well, it still maintains its place in Trek lineup
as an excellent Enduro race bike.
I could see a privateer racer chalking up
some good results on this one.
It encourages you to go fast.
Has that stiffness and the precision
that you're looking for in a race bike,
but you can also build it up into
more of an all mountain machine
if you wanted to stick some lighter parts on it
and kind of have it as your do it all
big mountain adventure bike.
A lot of versatility here and all those improvements
they paid off.
There you have it, that's the Trek Slash.
Stay tuned for more content from the Pinkbike Field Test,
including are always popular Huck to Flat.
Don't forget to like and subscribe and thanks for watching.
(upbeat music)