2020 Trek Supercaliber XC MTB Race Bike

So we wait foe the Flow review of the Supercaliber then? :grinning:

I’ve been riding my Supercaliber all season. I’ve posted elsewhere, but here are a few thoughts.

  1. Been very happy with the bike on mid-west rocky, rooty trails. It’s very efficient on the climbs and I rarely lock it out as many of our climbs are not smooth. It’s good sitting but also out of the saddle.

  2. The bike has been solid on the downhills I’ve taken it on. Most are shorter, typically mid-west descents, but Brown County, IN has a downhill flow trail (Hobbs Hollow) and it was surprising good on that as well.

  3. The SID Ultimate took some work for me to dial in. I needed it soft enough to soak up the roots, but still firm for out of the saddle work. Settled on two tokens and slowed the rebound down a fair bit from my initial settings. Feels efficient now without beating me up.

  4. Along with the SID tuning, I didn’t care for the XXX Kovee 35 720mm bar. While very light, it was incredibly stiff and a little too narrow. Switched it out to an Enve M5 31.8 760mm and it made a world of difference. I find I can handle the bike better and the bars provide some nice dampening. Put on an Enve stem too.

  5. Rear suspension. I’ve done little here other than tweaking the pressure a little. Kept thinking I would put a spacer in but never did. It’s felt very good as is. I was initially getting more pedal strikes than I would like, but I increased the PSI a little and this helped lift the bike a little and seem to be getting less strikes. At some point I’ll likely try a volume spacer just to see the difference.

  6. Bottom bracket. This has been creaky for a while and at some point need to get it addressed. It’s creaking whenever I put down the power and seems to be getting worse. The Trek dealer locally is pretty much appointment only these days so waiting to hear back from them when a good time to bring it in is.

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Thanks for taking the time write that up. Very useful feedback.

Have you had any maintenance issues or challenges with the IsoStrut? Or just regular shock service?

Not to date, but really haven’t had a need to service it yet. I looked up the process for putting in a volume spacer for the shock in the maintenance guide, but as mentioned above I haven’t done it yet.

When I first head out on a ride I also notice a little bit of swooshing sound coming from the shock, which sounds like a little bit of air being compressed/pushed as the Iso-Strut compresses. It’s always done this as far as I can remember and I assume it’s just ā€œnormalā€.

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thank you so much for this write up! Helpful!

Did you get a dropper?

Thanks for this thread!
I“m probably ordering mine this week so this is helpfull.
Anyone has experience with the Bontrager dropper? Curious about the lockout aswell.

Yes - I went with AXS wireless dropper. It’s pricey but has worked flawlessly and makes it very easy to switch to a standard carbon seatpost for times I don’t need the dropper.

One minor drawback of the AXS dropper is that it is not compatible with some saddles with oversized round carbon rails. I had planned to put a Prologo Dimension NDR with carbon rails on but was told it was not compatible, so I went with a model with metal rails instead. Ultimately I switched out the Dimension for a SQLab 612 Ergowave Active with oval carbon rails. With the oval rails it works perfectly (and is an amazing saddle).

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I run a Bontrager Paradigm RXL carbon saddle with my AXS dropper, it does have oval rails but not sure if they are ā€œoversizedā€.

Edit: nvm see your post says oversize round

Yep! Nice that dropper!!

Not to fall into the ā€œNino uses this and thatā€ trap, but I would definitely would try the 2.4 Aspen. And with a Supercaliber I can not do that.

Trek may be somewhat conservative in terms of what they relate for the clearance. As the leaves start to fall I’m going to give a set up 2.35 Nobby Nics a try on my M525’s and see what type of clearance I have in the rear.

For the Aspen’s, if the rear is tight you could always run the larger 2.4 up front and drop to the smaller Aspen in the rear.

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I’ve got a Bontrager dropper. It’s fine, and the cartridge is easily replaced if something goes wrong. I don’t notice any slop or play. It also comes with a lever. I’d get another one. AXS wireless dropper is what I really want… but that’s some big coin.

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Any reason you went for the SID ultimate over the Fox option?

From what I remember when I did the Project One build I didn’t have the option. I have the Fox SC 100 on my hard tail, so could have swapped it over but after getting the SID Ultimate tuned I’m happy with it now. It looks like this year you can get a Fox Performance fork, and it drops $500 of the build, but not the Fox Factory fork. The Fox Performance was an option when I built mine.

With Project One it’s not always as customizable as you would think it should be. I went Eagle AXS and this also forced me to choose SRAM Guide brakes. I worked a deal with the shop to swap those out for Shimano XTR brakes. I am used to the XTR brakes as I have them on my other bikes. The shop did this at no charge, but we did work the details out before I ordered the bike.

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I know. It is odd isn’t it. It seems Project One is more about colours than spec as such. I wish they would allow some upgrade on drive train eg say from GX to XO1 - as the jump to XX1 is huge.

Currently working with my dealer in either doing a Project One or getting a frame As he has a set of XXX wheels he wants to sell me cheap. Problem is I don’t know how cheap yet :joy::joy:

Suspect i may end up with a 9.8 with dropper, 170mm cranks and a power meter.

We shall see.

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Btw what paint scheme did you end up going for?

I went with Cosmos. The cage in the second pic is a Silca Titanium.

IMG_20200912_114647

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Very nice