Paola Pezzo won Olympic gold in Sydney 18 years ago on a Trek or Gary Fisher STP. The bike on which she won her second Olympic gold medal was a hardtail with a shock between the seat stays and seat tube. This Softail design was taken up by various companies in the course of the MTB evolution in order to achieve the best compromise between a hardtail and a fully.
Four years of development
With the new Supercaliber, Trek takes up the Softail idea again, but gives its new race bike a defined pivot point with bearings and a shock that is mounted without rotation. In order to provide space for two bottles in the frame triangle from size S upwards, the shock is positioned as a load-bearing part in the top tube to save space.
The Supercalibre has 60 millimetres of suspension travel
With this trick, the Supercaliber should provide 60 millimetres of rear travel and is combined with a 100 mm suspension fork, as befits its status. According to Trek, the rear of the new racer should feel like it has even more travel.
What is the point of the construction method?
With a stated weight of 1900 grams including shock, the frame is light, but cannot stand out from the other race fullys on the market. However, thanks to its compact design, there is space for two bottles in the frame and the Supercaliber is said to offer a very high level of stiffness, which is on a par with a hardtail. It should also have excellent propulsion due to the short suspension travel. Jolanda Neff has already been able to back up this claim with victorious World Cup races. Due to the short stroke of the shock (32.5 millimetres), the transmission ratio is very low, which means that the shock requires very little pressure.
The key data for the Trek Supercaliber 2020:
- 60 millimetres of suspension travel at the rear, 100 millimetres at the front
- 1900 grams with shock and hardware in size M
- 425 millimetre reach in size M
- 69 degree head angle and 430 mm chainstays
- three models 9.7/9.8 and 9.9 available (plus a 9.9 Sram AXS model)
