But, the bike is designed for a 120mm fork, and the head angle is a degree-and-a-half slacker than its analog counterpart. Trek used its very sleek and impressive IsoStrut suspension and integrated shock design to give the E-Caliber the same 60 millimeters of rear-wheel travel that the Supercaliber has. Just remember, from a riding standpoint they’re super different. But, because there aren’t many of these lighter-weight, lower-output e-bikes out there right now, and because I happen to have a Levo SL, I’ll be doing some comparisons. They indeed, should not be considered to be “in the same category” on that front. Based on what both bikes are like to ride, though, we’re looking at two very different experiences altogether. The Levo SL is a very good comparison on a few metrics: power output, battery capacity, and weight. Actually, let me roll that back a little. He was right, the Specialized Levo SL is not the comparison. So what is it, other than a vehicle to confuse my OCD, everything-needs-a-category brain? So XC bikes by definition, should be race bikes, right? If that’s to be the case, then the E-Caliber is clearly not that either, even though it’s based (and named) after something that very much is. The term “Cross Country” was a race discipline first, not a bike category. And that, my friends, is sort of the thing. The E-Caliber doesn’t share its suspension design and rear-wheel travel with the Top Fuel, it’s based off the Supercaliber, Trek’s lightest, fastest, World Cup Cross Country race machine. It’s part of an emerging group of super fun bikes that are quick and twitchy, but not as quick and twitchy as XC race rigs, that nobody can quite agree on a category name for.īut the E-Caliber is not that, according to Trek. Sort of like how the latest Trek Top Fuel is an XC bike, but not an XC race bike. The whole thing turns into a discussion over semantics. I’m putting all these categories in quotes, by the way, because every now and then a bike comes along that makes you question what they all mean in the first place. This crew, the same group of folks who had been making Bike magazine, predominately test bikes that fall into the ‘Trail,’ ‘All-Mountain,’ and ‘Enduro’ categories, the meat and potatoes of what the majority of mountain bike riders ride. He’s right, we don’t actually test very many XC bikes, although that of course depends on what you mean by ‘XC.’ We’ll get into that in a sec. Oh! This isn’t an atypical thing for us because it’s an e-bike (something we didn’t cover much of at our last outfit), it’s because it’s a Cross Country bike.
It’s a cross country bike aimed at cross country riders for cross country rides.” “Here’s the thing,” responds our Trek contact. “If I’m reading the clues right,” says Beta’s gear editor, Travis Engel, “It sounds like this’ll be on the lighter side of the e-bike spectrum? Palmer’s got the most experience there, having ridden a Levo SL for the past several months.” “This new e‑MTB will change the landscape of the category, particularly for a set of riders who’ve been curiously neglected in the e‑bike revolution.” So far, what we know of Trek’s new mystery bike, from a similarly coy invite email to an upcoming COVID-style virtual bike launch presentation, is this: The information sort of trickles out in references and hints at first. He’s being a bit coy still that’s how many of these initial conversations go when talking about unreleased products. “This isn’t the typical bike we’d push toward y’all,” says our contact at Trek, talking about the E-Caliber-though we’re still in the dark about the name and any details at this point.
We’re discussing a new bike they’re launching in a couple months, trying to figure out if it’s something we’d be interested in getting in for testing. It’s a few days before Christmas and we’re chatting with Trek. Get access to everything we publish when you
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