Triangle Adventure Racing Team

Fox 29er Fork, Trek 69′er

Name aside this is one sweet looking ride……and to top it off it rides like a champ. I had a chance to ride a Trek Demo over a recent weekend in the mountains of WV. Took her out for a long gravel road climb, and a screaming double track descent that left my hands cramping. What’s differant with this one…it’s a 69′er or a 96′er….depending on the company puttin’ em out. Carver Bikes is the only other major builder producting this set-up…with a 29er front wheel and a rear 26″ wheel. The selling point..the rollover improvement with the big front wheel while still maintaining the cornering and acceleration of the smaller rear wheel. A relatively new concept, which Trek has jumped in feet first with and they have put together a nice package. To top things off, it is the only bike to feature the new Fox 100mm front fork, that’s it folks..not available on any other builds or on the open market…only on the Trek 69′er. This bike created quite a stir when Trek rider Chris Eatough took a prototype ride to several 24 HR wins and some NORBA Marathon top finishes as well.

What generated my interest was that I had started riding a 96er set-up on a Surly 1X1 singlespeed…as a experiment. Due to the rigid front fork…the 29er front wheel fit and had enough clearance to run the set-up, I rode this same bike to a 3rd place SS finish at a local 4 hour enduro and really liked the performance. At the time the drawback was a lack of options with no serious full suspension 96′er bikes on the market and Carver was the only option. With that in mind, I backburnered the idea…at least until I saw a pic of Eatough riding the prototype I was then able to score a Demo recently from the Trek store in Raleigh to try it out.

The bike performed well on the climb with both front and rear suspension locked out..and was solid on the descent with the Avid Juicy 5 hydra brakes…the rear suspension was smooth but was hard for me to compare to my usual rig….Specialized Epic Marathon with smart brain, the smart brain works great but is considered relatively harsh in comparison with regular rear shock set-ups. With that being said, I had been moving toward cushier rear suspension to relieve the back and prolong my riding time. This bike comes equipped with bontranger wheels, stem, post, bar and seat, LX cranks and SRAM shifting set-up…..which I did like but had a hard time getting used to the thumb only shifting system……If you read the recent Trailblazer AR post…alot of adventure racers are moving quickly into the 29er market….if you’re doing AR and still dabbling in Mountain Bike races this might be the best of both worlds for you……………