Testing the Trek Slash 9

I was really excited about this test. The 160mm travel 'All Mountain' or 'Enduro' bike is what I ride most often and having owned and tweaked a couple of Specialized Enduros I felt I had a good base to compare the Trek to.

Let's start with some stats shall we? It's easy to get bogged down with numbers, these are the ones that - in my opinion - are the ones that you can realistically 'feel'. I shall be using these settings as reference to other bike tests to enable you to build a visual picture of how they ride.

Handlebar width: 750mm (31.8mm stem clamp, 25mm rise, 4 degree upsweep, 9 degree backsweep)
Stem Length: 75mm (quoted 70mm on stem) Zero rise
Crank Length: 175mm
Head Angle: 66 - 66.5 degrees (dependant on Mino Link position)
Wheelbase: 1117mm Bottom Bracket Hieght: 330mm (Static measurement)
Bottom Bracket Centre to Rear Axle: 435mm Fork travel: 160mm Rear Shock Travel: 160mm Rear shock Eye to Eye and Stroke Length: 8.25" x 2.375"

Centre of Seatpost to Centre of Steerer: 550mm

Frame size tested: 18.5" (Virtual) 17.5" (on the tape)

The Slash 9 is the top of the Slash range and as such comes bristling with all the latest technical finery.
Suspension duties are taken care of by a Fox 36 TALAS III FIT RLC DRCV forks with Kashima coated stanchions up front and a Fox DRCV RP-3 with 3 position (Climb-Ride-Descend) Propedal settings, beggining stroke rebound, Kashima coating on the shock shaft and with a Low Compression (Velocity) / Medium Rebound Tune.
Sram XO (Avid) brakes with a 200mm rotor size on the front and a 180mm on the rear is the perfect pairing on paper for this style of bike and the drivetrain duties are taken care of by a Sram XO 2x10 set up running a 38/24T Cahinset up front and a 11/36T Cassette on the rear paired with a Truvativ X-Glide chain device - an XO direct mount front mech - an XO rear mech (Long Cage) and XO Shifters complete the ensemble.
Also from the Sram stable is the superb Reverb dropper post which in this instance comes in 'Stealth' mode with the cabling being hidden inside the seat post.

FSA provides a Semi-Intergrated tapered headset and Keith Bontrager has his last say in the component picks and the stem, handlebars, grips, saddle and wheelset / tyres all come brandishing his 'Rythm' monicker.

Test time!
The Slash 9 is aimed at the up and coming Enduro scene with a biase towards the Downhill sections with the capability to pedal well to the next technical fun bit. To test the Slash I took her to Aston Hill which is the perfect testing ground for this type of bike with an XC loop to test the pedalling and uphill duties and a number of Downhills with which to test her DH credentials.

I was lucky enough to have warm, dry and dusty trails for the duration of the test. I decided to do a full day of DH testing and a full day of XC testing to get a good handle on the bike.

I'll start with the Suspension first.

The track I use as a benchmark test for suspension is the 4-2-3. It has a great mix of rough, rooty, droppy stuff up top with a steep bottom section. Getting spring rate and damping settings just right is the key to a good run here.

The Fox Talas III's were wound out to the 160mm (full) travel setting and on the first run they felt like they were diving to much on the steep turns at the bottom of the track so 10 PSI was added to the air spring bumping it up to 60 PSI (Fox recommend adding pressure in 5 PSI increments) which propped the fork up nicely on the lower slope but robbed the small bmp sensitivity on the upper sections. This wasn't really a problem if you kept the fork working over the medium to big sized bumps, but I really noticed the high frequency small 'stutter' bumps on the flatter sections. Maybe Fox could spec a negative air chamber to allow further fine tuning of the fork in this respect? I would be interested to see if a 36 DRCV fork is on the cards for 2013/14 and if this technology would make a difference here.

The TALAS (Travel Adjust Linear Air Spring) was faultless throughout the test with no change in spring rate between the settings and true 'on the fly' adjustment.

The FIT RLC (Rebound Lockout Compression) damper gave a great showing with a good positive lockout for the climbs. you can adjust the threshold (sensitivity) o the lockout should you need to and it was nice to be able to fine tune the damper action by adding varying degrees of low speed compression damping to prop the front of the bike up when the going got steep.

I didn't really notice the touted benefits of the Kashima coating ride wise, but to say that there was significantly less dust build up on the Stanchions (upper legs) than on standard versions and to the touch they do feel much more slippery and they look the business!

The Rebound damper dial has been nicely beefed up and the 15mm thru-axle suprised me stiffness wise with no discernable difference to a 20mm and the 'Fishbone' style QR levers on the bottom of the lower legs were nice to use although a bit slower than a Maxle.

The O-ring on the valve cap cap for the air spring was a bit of a faff and there wasn't much clearance for the screwing on the shock pump.

The Fox DRCV RP-3 is actuated by the Slash's Evo link which has a floating lower link that attaches to the bottom eyelet of the shock. Trek has taken the time to pick the correct tune for the bikes linkage system which is nice to see. The DRCV looks great with the hardware mounting to the side of the air can and the difinitive 'mushroom' top cap which houses the secondary air chamber.

The shock felt extremely linear through it's stroke and it was hard to tell the difference between this and the High Volume DHX air 4.0 I run on my Enduro, very impressive.

I ran the rebound 3 clicks from full slow which seems to be my base setting for Fox shocks.

The ProPedal lever action was too light for my liking and it was difficult to tell what position you'd put it in with full finger gloves on.

The 142 x 12mm Maxle rear end was stiff as you like, but do it up tight or it can creak.

Drivetrain:

It was my first time on a 2 x 10 and I felt a bit like I was wussing out when using the smallest front chainring (coming from a triple) but as soon as I realised that the small was the equivelant of the middle then I felt a bit better and it really opened up the useable ratios of the 2 x 10 system. The XO shifters are of the usual Sram snappiness, but being a 10 speed at the rear the clicks are much closer together on the shifter and extra care needs to betaken when setting up the rear mech and when pressing the shifter.

The Truvativ XO chain device was superb and the whole drivetrain wa very quiet (this was helped by a well designed rubber chainstay protector with an added lip on the underside of the chainstay closest to the chain device. I really liked the rubber armour on the downtube and am sure this helped with the noise levels too.

Lovely looking carbon cranks!

The front mech was a direct mount affair and looked a bit of a faff to set up but was faultless in operation.

Jagwire provided the cables which were top notch and the internal routing looked great, but I found that there were some annoying rattles coming from them in certain situations.

On the subject of internal cable routing the Reverb Stealth gets top marks with no unsightly and annoying cables to blot the clean looks of the frame. My only concern with this is with the complete removal of the post which I an only assume wold need the full removal of the remote lever and a re-bleed of the system... I also worry about the 'fit and forget' nature of the post. If it's fitted without grease, jetwashed regularly and not moved, could it eventually become siezed?

I loved the range of adjustment the post had, but I did have to play with the initial hieght in the frame so that it didn't feel to high when at full extension, luckily, with the collar bottomed on the clamp I got the right hieght, but I can imagine it beig a pain if you felt that it was overextending and you couldn't drop it any further.

Please be careful with the Reverbs remote lever if you turn the bike upside down as they are quite delicate and can break easily if misstreated.

Grip:

The Bontrager OSB (Offset Spoke Bed) 28h wheels were nice and stiff and remained true throughout the test and had a good with and nice finish. The XR4 tyres were 2.35 in width but came up quite large. I'd reccomend a pressure of 35 PSI for best results.

Brakes:

The Sram / Avid XO brakes were the highlight of the test. Truly Amazing. They had wads of power but didn't deliver it in a snatchy way that some systems can, more in a "I've got all this power, when do you want it? It's here when you do" type of way. I think that the new style HX rotors have something to do with this and they look nicer than the old HH style. Top marks.

Conclusion:

The Slash 9 rode extremely well on the DH stuff. It tracked superbly through the turns and it loved being smashed through the technical stuff. If you want a bike that lets you experience the thrills of a full blown DH rig then this is the one, but that's jus it, to get the best from this bike requires commitment and skill along with a bit of technical set up knowledge to get the set up bang on and unleash the potential of the frame and components.

You alsoneed to be quite 'dynamic' on the bike, really leaning it into turns and getting off the back of the saddle. In return it will reward you with wads of mid-corner grip, pinpoint tracking and superb bump absorbtion over the medium to big hits.

I did find it difficult to get the Slash's balance point, she feels a bit 'nose heavy'. This could be something to do with the 75mm stem, I'd like to change it to a 50mm to find out. Oddly it's a cinch to manual...

On anything other than this type of terrain and riding style though the bike feels, well, it feels bored! ride it along a tow path and you can feel her saying "why are you doing this? yes, I can do it, but why? Give me a downhill!!"

If your idea of 'All Mountain' is one of trail centres and a 50/50 mix of climbing and descending, then you will be much better served by the Remedy or Fuel ranges.

Overall it's the perfect bike for a trip to the Alps and new breed competitions like the Mega or Trans Provance.

MASSIVE Thankyou to Jon, Matt, Gareth, Charlie and Steve at Trek HQ for making this test possible.