Oh neat! Despite being someone who's been off Trek for a number of years and on brands that don't use IS cups in their high end bikes, The Slack-r (or Slack-daddy as we've been calling it at the shop; a simultaneously far better and far worse name) has occupied a fair amount of brain time since release. It's one thing to fire this on to a relatively modern, but certainly not "progressive" on its release Yeti SB104, but I get more excited when you take it a bit further - A 2014-16 Fuel EX gets a lot more interesting with one of these installed! Pre-covid bike pricing, those things could be picked up in the higher ranged alloy options for like $1500 Canadian. A tempting recommendation for the newer rider looking for something like the current top fuel.
I've sadly been seeing some people getting criminally close to retail numbers for their clapped and haggard old bikes. Maybe not 2015ish era, but absolutely hosed 2018/19 enduro bikes? Good god. Once the brake bleed/pads, bearing swap (probably not though), suspension service (lol yeah right), drivetrain or half-drivetrain, and fresh rubber goes in, you're looking at prices near- or even above retail if you got suckered in to paying far too much for what may have literally been the only medium 160mm 29er in a 300km radius. I'm quite ambivalent to the whole situation, between a rider maximizing their value on their outgoing bike, someone's lack of patience on getting the new one, and a general sense of "fairness" for newbies in the used bike market.
June 21, 2021, 6:48 a.m. - Lu Kz
Oh neat! Despite being someone who's been off Trek for a number of years and on brands that don't use IS cups in their high end bikes, The Slack-r (or Slack-daddy as we've been calling it at the shop; a simultaneously far better and far worse name) has occupied a fair amount of brain time since release. It's one thing to fire this on to a relatively modern, but certainly not "progressive" on its release Yeti SB104, but I get more excited when you take it a bit further - A 2014-16 Fuel EX gets a lot more interesting with one of these installed! Pre-covid bike pricing, those things could be picked up in the higher ranged alloy options for like $1500 Canadian. A tempting recommendation for the newer rider looking for something like the current top fuel. I've sadly been seeing some people getting criminally close to retail numbers for their clapped and haggard old bikes. Maybe not 2015ish era, but absolutely hosed 2018/19 enduro bikes? Good god. Once the brake bleed/pads, bearing swap (probably not though), suspension service (lol yeah right), drivetrain or half-drivetrain, and fresh rubber goes in, you're looking at prices near- or even above retail if you got suckered in to paying far too much for what may have literally been the only medium 160mm 29er in a 300km radius. I'm quite ambivalent to the whole situation, between a rider maximizing their value on their outgoing bike, someone's lack of patience on getting the new one, and a general sense of "fairness" for newbies in the used bike market.