While it can feel nervous and fluttery at first, the long wheelbase means it’s still an impressively stable bike once you learn to trust it, and the low bottom bracket means you can really rip it through corners with wheels scrabbling as you search for the exit point. The overall result is that you’ll still be surprised what the Stache can batter through (and at what speed) compared to a smaller-wheeled suspension bike. The G2 geometry also gives a distinctively light feel to the steering, so you have little trouble turning the big front wheel in sharply, even with a 90mm stem. The rear wheel screens out more chatter compared to some smaller-wheeled bikes, too, although you definitely get more of a wallop off bigger stuff than with some. The fat carcass 29er tyres also roll over rough stuff really well for serious speed sustain once you’ve got them going. While it’s not light, the Recon fork is smooth enough and the extra 20mm of travel over most 29er hardtails makes a big difference in control and confidence on big drops, rocks and logs. It puts a lot of torque and traction down on climbs and marshy ground, too, clearing with ease several test moorland sections that have stumped us for a while. The rear tyres has punctured twice, last Sunday requiring a “sticky strip” kit repair in the main tread area so while the tyres are decently light, they may be too fragile for rugged trail use.There’s more than enough stiffness through the frame to recruit every sinew from shoulders to soles of the feet to getting the wheels moving, and it responds significantly quicker if you go full gas. I am determined to give them a good time to grow on me since they are well reviewed. Not sure if a copy of another post or their own design.īeing a Shimano Brake person, I’m not totally convinced by the Guide RS brakes, they are hard to set up without rub, feel is good but power on 180 discs merely average. No problems with any of the componentry and the cable Bontrager dropper is smooth time will tell if its reliable. I think a psi or 2 lower might be better as well. Despite large wheel circumference the bike took the tight uphill corners superbly and going downhill on the damp chalk showed very good grip. The tyres hold air without Stans.Īfter the first 2 rides, I felt the stem at 50mm was a fraction long and invested in a Hope 35mm long stem which has made the riding position spot on.įirst ride with the shorter stem was around a slightly slippy QE park and I ended up yelling at myself in sheer joy. The rims are pretaped, just needed valves. Incidentally the supplied tubes are 900g each, now tubeless. My first rides where simply XC event rides and didn’t trouble the bike at all, first ride at 20psi (since I was concerned about bashing the carbon rims) and the bike was bouncing around a bit. An 18.5 would probably have been perfect. I’m 5’11 and measured key dimensions from my existing 19” Stache which fits well and settled on a 19.5 (which is 18.5 actual). I was looking at a frame only option to ‘upgrade’ that bike but a 20% black Friday sale from Absolute Bikes got me the Stache pictured earlier for £2750 collected on Christmas eve.Īnnoyingly the carbon bikes are 19.5 or 17.5 with no intermediate size. My previous bike was / is an original Stache 8 (the green one), aluminium 29er, upgraded with Pike forks. Like munro, now running 40mm stem (80 stock far too long) and a set of 760mm wide bars. The chapucra is fine at the back though but does slip on wet roots!ĭropper is necessity on a bike like this!Īlso running a 34 tooth ring as I found the 32 a little too spinny. Stuck on a vee bulldozer which is awesome! Sticks to the ground like glue. I like to throw the front end into stuff and in anything but very dry conditions, the tyre would slip away. Keeping rigid fork for the summer and will flip back again at some point.īrakes are now xt’s which do a better job than the stock basic shimanos.Īlso the stock chapapapapcurcaracatsaaaaaa rubber up front was not great. I did however find the front end far too high with forks set to 120 so dropped to 100mm and I prefer it. The magnums have transformed the ride and now the bike is much more capable. The undamaped 3″ rubber had the tendency to throw me off line during very fast runs down my favorite trails. I fitted some magnum pro forks to my 5 to give the front end some squish. Be interested to hear how you get on with it! I think the 2017 has 120mm travel forks up front as stock as opposed to 110 on the 2016. As I have posted before, my 5 is now my only bike having sold the 29er and the full squish as I was just not using them. Glad to see trek keeping the stache going.
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