![]() For a ‘trail-ready’ bike it’s simply too long, even if the reach was actually OK. Once we got the seatpost chopped down so we could drop the saddle a touch, our attention quickly turned to the 90mm stem. In action, the Shimano gears never missed a beat and while the ServoWave action of the SLX levers doesn’t match the light touch of Avid brakes, there’s no disputing their prodigious stopping power and reliability. With alloy nipples, a nice, wide, lightweight rim and quality sealed bearing hubs, the Bontrager tubeless-ready 29er wheels are easily the lightest on test, making the Stache incredibly fast from the gun and easy to get lent over in corners. One of the key advantages of 650b wheels is that with like-for-like components they will be lighter than their 29in counterparts. The entry-level Evolution series also has a distinct lack of mid-stroke support, and while this makes it very easy to achieve full travel on every ride, it does nothing for your ride confidence when the fork plummets through all of its travel when landing a drop or having to negotiate a tight, steep switchback. Yes, the oversized 15mm quick-release and 32mm upper tubes ensure that it’s plenty stiff enough for good steering precision, even with 29in wheels, but there is a harshness to the action of the Fox fork that translates to a slight numbing of the hands. There was a time when the 120mm-travel 32 Float would have been a sign of excellence, but since the introduction of the CTD damper in 2012, Fox forks no longer carry the same cachet. It’s not just the frame design that’s unique on the Trek it’s the only bike on test to sport a Fox fork. So your first upgrade will definitely be a dropper post, and Trek provides Stealth routing to make it possible if that’s the way you want to go. There is one downside to the flattened seat tube design, though: you can’t drop the saddle more than an inch or two. Was it worth all the hassle? Well, it certainly looks amazing and the 442mm chainstays, while not being super-short, are shorter than on most 29ers. The final piece of the puzzle was to flatten the back of the seat tube to make everything fit together. This, in turn, has allowed the rear wheel to be tucked in nice and tight to the BB without scrimping on tyre clearance. Keeping the chainstay length in check was a priority for Trek when developing the Stache and, by switching to the stiffer bolt-through dropout design, the engineers have been able to retain the desired frame stiffness for tracking and power delivery while ditching the seat and chainstay bridges. The frame shares most design features you find on Trek’s full-suspension trail bikes, including a tapered head tube, ISCG tabs on the BB for fitting a chain device and 142x12mm rear dropouts the last of those isn’t commonly found on a hardtail - all of the other bikes on test this month have regular QR rear dropouts. If I had a place in my "garage" and time to maintain it, I'd totaly buy the Stache instead of any other 29" HT out there.First introduced last season, the Stache is billed as a trail-ready 29er hardtail designed to meet all the exacting demands of the modern mountain biker. It's been a true pleasure to test ride it. One of the most fun bikes I have ever ridden. Just remember to put a sub 50mm stem on it, to make it feel more humane. It's a true explorers bike, long mile hauler, and since 29+ tyres are only slightly larger in radius than regular ones, you can easily put regular 29" wheels and tyres and enjoy a cool 29" HT in the summer time. It does suck on gravel corners at speed and in berms but it's not that bad. What else? I could manual it and bunny hop it, it's not much harder to do than on a regular 29er while wheelies are simply EPIC. Then the cushioning gives it a very "noble" way of riding a singletrack, things are smooth but not stupid smooth. Then it allows you to climb stupid sht, at least as long as you keep it rolling, those tyres are fkng heavy and will punish you for stalling. I rode a trail that is barely rideable in the summer on the whole length, where Stache just kept going. It rides well through loads of soft crap, which is especially in the early spring. It allows you to stay in the saddle where even 10k S-Works Anything would tell you to carry it. ![]() It has tons of grip but a svelte 29er like Epic would still kick it's arse on a wet climb. Let's cut the bullcrap it is not faster in any single "ordinary" instance of riding a bike. From Plus sympathetic I went to full on PLUS supporter. I rode the aluminium version of this bike.
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