In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
I've always ridden road and dirt about equally, so I don't consider myself one or the other. I will do a 70 mile road ride on Sat and then do lift-served DH riding on Sunday. About the only style of cycling I don't do is gravel. Mainly because there aren't any gravel roads near me. Road riding is something I usually do solo and from my front door. If I'm driving, it's for a mtn bike ride.
Loooove me some gravel. That new GRX kit is awesome too, made the switch this year finally on my Aspero.
I've put over 1000-miles on the bike now & still love it.
I had my first flat Tuesday evening, but I was near the bike shop so I just stopped there to change the tube - I'm not sure I'll set it up tubeless. My MTB is tubeless & I'm just not sold on on the benefits for my riding.
A local guy wants to check out the bike tomorrow, because he's interested in ordering one. So I spent some time yesterday cleaning the bike & discovered this on the rear rim:
I've already submitted a warranty claim & our head mechanic is pretty confident it'll be accepted, so I'll wait & see. If nothing else I can get a new set of wheels through the same Trek purchase plan I got the bike through, which I might actually do anyway - it seems there's not much in a carbon gravel wheelset with a 5mm through-axle. So having a spare set may not be a bad idea.
I rode 25-miles yesterday & the crack hasn't grown, so I'll just limit my riding to smooth pavement until I replace the wheel.
Still riding on the cracked wheel. Fortunately it hasn't grown at all.
The new set of wheels I ordered arrived & I'm waiting to hear from Trek if they want me to send back the whole wheel or just the rim. My plan is once I get the new one to find a nicer rear hub to lace into it, as the stock one has pretty clunky cassette engagement.
I also signed up for a gravel time trial on 6/19. It's only 7-miles so I think I can survive it, but I have zero expectations of placing anywhere other than dead last.
I managed to crack a handlebar on the Supercaliber and Trek was very good about warranty. Took a while to get a replacement, though. I think a second set of wheels is not a bad idea, especially if you can get it at a good price. I'd be amazed if Trek only wanted to warranty the rim, the labor cost to build a wheel with a new rim is probably too high.
I'm going to keep an eye on my wheels now :)
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I really have no idea how it happened. I didn't see it when I wash fixing the flat, and the next day it was there. I didn't hit anything, ride off any drops, etc.
Trek actually now has a 2-year unlimited replacement for *any* damage to carbon rims, for the original owner.
BTW how do you like your Supercaliber? I'm thinking that might be my next bike, if I can save up the $$$ for one - I really like the idea of a full-suspension MTB that weighs about the same as this bike.
I'm loving the Supercal. It climbs like my old hardtail but with slightly better traction. You're never really aware of the rear suspension doing anything, it just smooths out the trail. Mine's the first generation with the steeper geometry, but I like my bikes a little more compact and responsive than the current trend.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I agree about the increasing geometry slack.
Do you ride many rooty trails? I'm curious if the rear suspension helps much over them. Even with the 130mm rear travel on my DB, they can still be brutal sometimes.
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
Rear suspension definitely helps with traction over roots, although tires and tire pressure can also play a big role. Plus, how the suspension is set up along with the design and progression curve. My 160mm travel enduro bike is set up softer than my 115mm travel trail bike. The former also runs super-soft DH tires and if I have the legs to turn the pedals, the bike has traction for days (depending on setup, it can weight up to 10 lbs more than the trail bike).
Big, fat tires can also be good over roots. Years ago I rode a hardtail at Kingdom Trails in VT. Not many rocks there, but tons of roots. The bike was set up as a 27.5 "plus" bike with 2.8" tires. Getting the pressure right with these tires is a bit of a PITA as the pressures are so low that 1 PSI too hard or too soft can make a big difference in how the bike rides. But once I got them right, the bike was amazing over the endless webs of roots that some of the trails there have.
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
Rear suspension definitely helps with traction over roots, although tires and tire pressure can also play a big role. Plus, how the suspension is set up along with the design and progression curve. My 160mm travel enduro bike is set up softer than my 115mm travel trail bike. The former also runs super-soft DH tires and if I have the legs to turn the pedals, the bike has traction for days (depending on setup, it can weight up to 10 lbs more than the trail bike).
Big, fat tires can also be good over roots. Years ago I rode a hardtail at Kingdom Trails in VT. Not many rocks there, but tons of roots. The bike was set up as a 27.5 "plus" bike with 2.8" tires. Getting the pressure right with these tires is a bit of a PITA as the pressures are so low that 1 PSI too hard or too soft can make a big difference in how the bike rides. But once I got them right, the bike was amazing over the endless webs of roots that some of the trails there have.
This is why I run CushCores on my big bikes- I can run lower pressures for traction, but also not worry about blowing a rim out on a rock or root in New England chunk. It's worth the weight penalty imho.
Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
I agree about the increasing geometry slack.
Do you ride many rooty trails? I'm curious if the rear suspension helps much over them. Even with the 130mm rear travel on my DB, they can still be brutal sometimes.
There are rooty trails in my past, I suspect the Ottawa area is very much like VT when it comes to trails. Around here we have rocks. There's one local area I used to avoid on my hardtail because it got just too chattery - lots of little steps or surfaces that are like the rock version of diamond plate. But it's got lots of climbing so you want something that puts the power down instead of sucking it up. You're more likely to get a pinch flat than on roots - I learned that when I moved here -so you have to run more pressure. The little bit of travel in the Supercal made the difference, it's a much more fun area to ride now but without the big squish that you get from big rear travel so it climbs like a hardtail.
Even if you're not interested in the bike, Trek has a really interesting page on their site showing the suspension development with lots of very nerdy data acquisition. Recommended for anyone who geeks out on suspension :)
In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
I'm running 29x3 Maxxis Ikons on my Diamondback Release 3, and 12psi seems to about the magic pressure for our local trails.
I think a lot of my issues revolve around the weight of the bike, especially vs myself(34lbs on our Park scale vs. 140). So I really like the idea of a 20lb Supercaliber, if not the price(even with the Trek discount).
I ran my first gravel time trial last night. I expected it to be brutal, and it was, but I still underestimated it. That said, I'm ok with the results.
I managed to place 11th out of 15 in the men's category, and 13th out of 20 overall. My average speed was 14.8mph, which is pretty close to the ~15.5 I usually ride around town. I was 5:14 back from first place, so I'm definitely not fast lol.
The course was 6.7-miles, with a mix of hard-packed dirt, sandy soil, and fresh gravel. There were no intense climbs, but there were a couple long ones.
You can probably see how much more beat down I am in the 2nd pic heading towards the finish, compared to the first pic leaving the start.
Are they USAC categories for that? Or a little chiller?
In reply to fatallightning :
Nah, this was just a local event. They didn't charge an entry fee or have awards. Thought they have an event in august on that will have both. Unfortunately I'll be out of town then.
Cool!
I'm out in Colorado for a few weeks, but fortunately I have a place to ride so I brought the Trek. Even better, there's an 11+ mile gravel loop here. It's a pretty rough ride though.
In addition to getting getting acclimated to a nearly 6400' elevation change from sea level, there's over 2-miles of fist-sized chunks of broken asphalt mixed with smaller loose aggregate. Oh, and the occasional rattlesnake to dodge too. The Trek is great though, it's amazing how much of it the CF frame/fork can absorb.
I'm hoping to have time to check out a couple other routes in the Colorado Springs area while I'm here too. I might even try Pikes Peak, even though there's zero chance of me making it to the summit.
I took a short ride around Garden of the Gods yesterday.
I really hope my new tires arrive soon. I didn't have enough traction for the climbs on the trails & had to mostly stick to pavement.
I stopped by the local Trek dealer to pick up a spare tube. They had several Supercalibers in stock, so I took one for a test ride. I'm going to need to sell off some stuff when I get home & order one...
In reply to Matthew_nu :
I still love it. I have over 2500-miles on it so far & I've spent the last month beating the crap out of it on this perimeter road & coming back down an unpaved mountain pass. I have no idea how it hasn't just split into pieces by now, but it's still going strong.
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