At the Interbike show's outdoor demo on Monday, Trek unveiled the latest addition to its 2008 full suspension mountain bike family, the Remedy, aimed at the 'all-mountain' category of bikes that can be ridden full-bore down the mountain bike can still be pedaled back up it.
The new six-inch-travel (150mm) machine uses Trek's duo of new suspension design features that were well-received at its earlier product launches, Active Braking Pivot and Full Floater, and adds a frame design idea that's new to the Trek mountain bike inventory, E2.
E2 is a headset design that combines a 1 1/8in top race with a 1 1/2in lower. Trek says this gives the stiffness and steering accuracy advantages of the larger size without all of the weight. It also gives riders a far wider choice of stems than the 1 1/2in size, while making for a steerer that's stiff and strong enough to support the loads from a 150mm (6-inch) travel fork without resorting to a double-crown fork and its associated problems with clearances.
The key feature of the Remedy, though, is the Active Braking Pivot. By pivoting the rear subframe around the dropout, Trek allows the suspension to work even when the brakes are applied getting one of the advantages of a four-bar linkage design without infringing Specialized's patent on the Horst link (a pivot positioned just in front of the dropout), which has a similar function.
Trek says the Full Floater design takes this a step further. By compressing the shock between two ends of the rear subframe - rather than between rear subframe and main frame - Trek says it can compensate for the rising rate of the of the air shock, giving an impression of "bottomless" travel.
To work with the Full Floater suspension, Fox has supplied an over-sized version of its RP23 shock for greater air volume and the frame is designed to accommodate a Fox DH 5.0 air shock too.
Fox also comes to the party with an E2 version of the 36 TALAS RC2 fork on the top model Remedy 9. This will also be available aftermarket from Trek for riders who want to upgrade from the RockShox Lyric 2-Step or RockShox Lyrik Solo Air on the Remedy 8 and Remedy 7.
There will be three models of Remedy, all using the same hydroformed Alpha Red aluminium frame. The Remedy 9 will retail for approximately US$4,300 with Shimano Deore XT crank, SRAM XO derailleurs and shifters, Avid juicy Carbon brakes and Bontrager Rhythm Elite wheels. The Remedy 8 will have Deore XT crank, shifters and derailleurs with Bontrager Rhythm Comp wheels for US$3,700 and the US$2,700 Remedy 7 will have Shimano Deore gears, Avid Juicy 5 brakes and Bontrager Rhythm wheels.
The Remedy trio of bikes will be available in March of 2008.
