Gaz’s New Rig: Trek Remedy

After riding an Intense Slope-style for a couple of years, on 4/5 hour trail rides, the Trek Remedy feels like a cross country hard-tail on the climbs, it currently weighs in at 28lbs, which is a good 7lbs lighter than the Slope-style (although that was a burly build). 28lbs is super-light for a 6″ travel trail bike.

The rear of the Trek Remedy isn’t quite as plush as the Intense but I wasn’t really expecting it to be, the SS is a mini DH bike and you feel it on the climbs, the Remedy still does a great job on the rocky downhill trails of the Lake District, and makes long rides more of a pleasure, it just doesn’t handle ‘square edge’ hits as well as the VPP rear end of the Intense.

Trek worked with Fox to produce the Fox Float RP-2 /Trek DRCV rear shock, this is unique to Trek bikes and does seem to give a more ‘coil-like’ feel to the rear, it works by switching in an extra chamber as the shock goes through its travel, this stops the big ‘ramp-up’ that is common with air shocks. You can see a video of the details here Trek DRCV. The 32 TALAS does its job up front and with the rear pro-pedal on and the TALAS set to 110mm it climbs almost as well as my Carbon Hardtail, let the fork out to 150, rear propedal off, and it becomes a ‘freeride’ bike.

The E2 tapered head-tube adds stiffness to the front, although I’d really like to try the bike with a new Float 36 bolted in there, I think it would suit my riding more.

Some ‘babies head’ rocks on the descent from Parkamoor to Satterthwaite in the Lake District have failed to make any impression on the ‘Carbon Armour’ of the downtube even though the noise had me cringing on the way down; I’ve seen the damage that this descent can do to down tubes. Gear change is super-slick with the X0 mech/X9 shifter, it’s my first experience of the new SRAM stuff and to be honest I think I’ll be sticking with it.

Changes up to now :

Hope Pro2/ XM819 wheels in place of the Bontrager Rhythm Elites.
Shimano Saint brakes/203mm Hope floating rotors in place of the Elixir R Carbon/185mm.
Thomson X4, 50mm stem and Easton EA70 bars with Intense lock-ons.
Outer ring of the XT chainset removed and modified Saint bashguard fitted.
UST High Roller up front and a UST Ignitor out back.

I’m currently running a Joplin 4 adjustable seatpost and this seems to be performing superbly at the moment, there appears to be none of the problems that plagued the Joplin 3…as yet, watch this space

There’s no major changes for the 2011 9.8, rear goes bolt-through and top of the range gets 2×10 gearing. To be honest the rear is pretty stiff with the QR, I don’t really see the need for a bolt-through rear on a trail bike.

Fox Float 36 on order, durability test continues……

More detials? www.trekbikes.com

Words and Photo Gary Millings