For what it's worth, Trek quietly bumped up the front travel to 130mm and prescribed pikes and 34s across the board since your review. So really, this bike gets you back to the weight ranges it was supposed to have on release but with the bigger fork.
However, and this is a big however, the 9.8 model doesn't come with carbon wheels anymore. Gone are the Line 30 carbons in favour of the Line 30 comps. This is the first year in a while that a 9.8 spec bike hasn't received carbon wheels. I was hoping they'd trade the Line 30 carbons for entry level Kovee carbon rims because they suited the bike a bit more, but this is a.... less favourable trade. Depending on what you want to do with the bike, there's an argument that the less-adjustable, carbon hooped outgoing 130/120mm model is a better value bike _at retail._ Which IMO is pretty bad.
I personally ran mine in a number of setups, from the stock 120/120 all the way to 140/13-something with a 52.5/55mm stroke Float X and a GRIP2 36, with and without a single offset bushing - so I can confirm you could long-shock the last one, but Trek didn't say you could. The added inherent adjustability certainly is cool for tinkerers like myself without having to resort to stuff like offset bushings and the fair bicycle offset clamp to dial the rest of the geo/fit to where it should be in light of over-suspension-ing.
I'm suitably whelmed by the release but I am certainly not rushing out to pick up a new one after selling the one prior.
July 11, 2024, 9:18 a.m. - Jotegir
For what it's worth, Trek quietly bumped up the front travel to 130mm and prescribed pikes and 34s across the board since your review. So really, this bike gets you back to the weight ranges it was supposed to have on release but with the bigger fork. However, and this is a big however, the 9.8 model doesn't come with carbon wheels anymore. Gone are the Line 30 carbons in favour of the Line 30 comps. This is the first year in a while that a 9.8 spec bike hasn't received carbon wheels. I was hoping they'd trade the Line 30 carbons for entry level Kovee carbon rims because they suited the bike a bit more, but this is a.... less favourable trade. Depending on what you want to do with the bike, there's an argument that the less-adjustable, carbon hooped outgoing 130/120mm model is a better value bike _at retail._ Which IMO is pretty bad. I personally ran mine in a number of setups, from the stock 120/120 all the way to 140/13-something with a 52.5/55mm stroke Float X and a GRIP2 36, with and without a single offset bushing - so I can confirm you could long-shock the last one, but Trek didn't say you could. The added inherent adjustability certainly is cool for tinkerers like myself without having to resort to stuff like offset bushings and the fair bicycle offset clamp to dial the rest of the geo/fit to where it should be in light of over-suspension-ing. I'm suitably whelmed by the release but I am certainly not rushing out to pick up a new one after selling the one prior.