Hardtails benefit from a fallacy. Only when it really rattles, your brain tells you, are you riding at the limit. The hard, direct, unadulterated nature of a hardtail really shakes our synapses and signals to us unmistakably: this is the limit. With the Fully, on the other hand, you experience many a hardtail rodeo passage as if you were in a rocking chair. There's no trace of a borderline experience. That's why the indirect and heavier fully feels much slower. But appearances are often deceptive and the stopwatch tells a different story.
But what if you didn't have to choose between hardtail and fully and there was something in between? A bike that combines the best of both worlds? Direct acceleration, but with comfort. This was precisely the approach taken by Trek engineers when designing the new Supercaliber. Jolanda Neff's workhorse has already been used successfully in the World Cup and, after many delays, has finally made it onto the market and to our editorial office. With just 60 millimetres of travel at the rear, it straddles the worlds. But can it really satisfy the secret desire of many racers?
To put the new Trek Supercaliber through its paces, we took the Trek fully, a Canyon Lux CF and the super-light Stoll R1 hardtail to the cross-country race track in Bundenthal. The full article with all the test results including points tables, technical data and grades is available as a PDF in the download area below:
- Trek Supercaliber 9.9 XX1
- Canyon Lux CF SLX 9.0 Team
- Stoll R1 Layup 850
You can find the complete group test including all the data, points tables and the score overview in BIKE 2/2020. The individual PDF version of the group test costs 1.49 euros. Why not free of charge? Because quality journalism has a price. In return, we guarantee independence and objectivity. This applies in particular to the tests in BIKE. We don't charge for them, but the opposite is the case: we charge for them, hundreds of thousands of euros every year.
You can read the entire digital edition in the BIKE app (iTunes and Google Play) or reorder the print edition in the DK shop - while stocks last:
