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Trek Session 88 Test ride

Transcend

My Nuts Are Flat
Apr 18, 2002
18,040
3
Towing the party line.
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Wilson

Chimp
Feb 17, 2007
41
0
Transcend, what do you mean when you say the Top tube is pretty cramped?
Is there any chances the stem was too short? Does getting a lower front end with for ex. Sunline Direct stem and low riser bars would manage to fix that up?
I'm 5'8 and used to ride a small 05 Devinci Wilson.

Would like more info about that one if you don't mind!
 
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Dogboy

Turbo Monkey
Apr 12, 2004
3,208
581
Durham, NC
Seems a bit daft for them to spec the test bikes that way... did they just run out of time / parts / brains?
They make two models. A race version with a 40 and a fr version with a Totem. Not sure about those Hutchinson tires.
 

Demomonkey

Monkey
Apr 27, 2005
857
0
Auckland New Zealand
Are Trek doing a Giant on the sizing of their DH frames? I have to say that that frame is one of the sweetest looking bikes I have seen in many a year. I've heard mixed reviews so it will be interesting to see how well the bike stacks up. All of the numbers and ideas behind the suspension sound great so I'm hopeful that it will be a killer ride.
 

24seven

Chimp
Sep 15, 2005
3
0
Cramped hey. I'm 6ft and have just ordered a Medium. Will this be to small? The top tube is listed as 23.5 inches. I live in Australia and only the small and medium are being brought in to the country.
 

JCL

Monkey
Aug 31, 2008
696
0
Toptube is pretty useless with regard to size. It's the BB to heat tube that matters. I haven't had a chance to put tape measure to frame yet but people say it comes up small.

Can't work out what's going on with the mixed reviews of this bike. It's total love or hate it seems.
 

John P.

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2001
1,170
0
Golden, CO
F-

I get a blank screen - all white - in IE; in Safari, it says "Safari can't find the server" (on both my PC and iPhone). Same when I simply type in www.ridemonkey.com (it tries to auto-redirect to content.ridemonkey.com and goes blank). To get to the DH page, I have to start from www.ridemonkey.com/forums. Additionally, most of the pictures you've posted up are red x's for me.

This seemed to have corrected itself at one point during your Interbike postings, but it's back to dead links and red x's now. I'll send a PM to dirtydog.

--JP
 

cubebiker

Chimp
Apr 9, 2008
88
0
I did not understand in the review what made the bike more freeride than WC DH?
Well he mentioned that angles are not too flat, but he also had a short fork equipped. So the angle could get little slacker and then be more "DH"... The bike is to have 65.5 but with a slightly shorter fork this could be 66.5 or even 67 and that is freeride...
Does anyone know if the ISCG tabs are old or iscg 05???
 

klunky

Turbo Monkey
Oct 17, 2003
1,078
6
Scotland
Well he mentioned that angles are not too flat, but he also had a short fork equipped. So the angle could get little slacker and then be more "DH"... The bike is to have 65.5 but with a slightly shorter fork this could be 66.5 or even 67 and that is freeride...
Does anyone know if the ISCG tabs are old or iscg 05???
ISCG tabs are old. It has to be this way for the "full floater"
 

Wilson

Chimp
Feb 17, 2007
41
0
I've been waiting for that bike to come out for weeks now and also ordered it few weeks ago. Since the reviews seems fairly divided and the bike is B/O 'til end of november, I an wondering if I should wait one more year and get the 09 Glory. I need to get a new bike and I can get the Session 88 or the Glory Dh. Perhaps getting the glory and saving 700 $ is the way to go until more people give feedback about the session. I want to get a bike pretty race oriented and am considering starting racing this year.

What do you guys think?
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
20,128
7,679
Transylvania 90210
looks like a dope kona stab
geo (trek/kona - both medium, kona in the "front" hole option)
HT - 65/65
SA - 58/72.5 (gotta be a typo on kona's site)
TT - 23.46virtual/22.8actual
CS - 17.3/17.4
WB - 46.0/46.5
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
looks like a dope kona stab
geo (trek/kona - both medium, kona in the "front" hole option)
HT - 65/65
SA - 58/72.5 (gotta be a typo on kona's site)
TT - 23.46virtual/22.8actual
CS - 17.3/17.4
WB - 46.0/46.5
From what I remember Kona is much lower.

I've been waiting for that bike to come out for weeks now and also ordered it few weeks ago. Since the reviews seems fairly divided and the bike is B/O 'til end of november, I an wondering if I should wait one more year and get the 09 Glory. I need to get a new bike and I can get the Session 88 or the Glory Dh. Perhaps getting the glory and saving 700 $ is the way to go until more people give feedback about the session. I want to get a bike pretty race oriented and am considering starting racing this year.

What do you guys think?
These are the only 2 options? Imho they are one of the worst possible after reading the trek reviews.
If you want to save money maybe go goose. If you got money maybe commencal? Both got much better interbike reviews.
 

Wilson

Chimp
Feb 17, 2007
41
0
From what I remember Kona is much lower.



These are the only 2 options? Imho they are one of the worst possible after reading the trek reviews.
If you want to save money maybe go goose. If you got money maybe commencal? Both got much better interbike reviews.
Unfortunatly these are the 2 brands from wich I would consider buying a dh bike.I'm working in a shop where we only got Kona,Giant,Trek and Cannondale so I don't have pretty much choices...
 

davep

Turbo Monkey
Jan 7, 2005
3,276
0
seattle
Unfortunatly these are the 2 brands from wich I would consider buying a dh bike.I'm working in a shop where we only got Kona,Giant,Trek and Cannondale so I don't have pretty much choices...

Many smaller mfg are willing to sell direct to shop employees even if the shop is not a 'dealer'...the idea being that if you are stoked on the bike, you might just sell/special order one or two. Certaily worth a phone call or two if the 'uppers' at your shop are OK with it.
 

Stefan W

Chimp
Jan 11, 2008
10
0
Gothenburg
I find it really funny when someone think its the best stock bike ever and compare it to worldcup racers ala sam hills IH and so one (guess who:D) and others say its no good at all.
With all the technology there is today, how can you do a bad bike? And when you take one of thoose big names out there, this time Trek you should be able to build a really good bike. Why do something that isnt that good to produce? And in my opinion theres a strong hype around this bike at the moment. Thumbs up for Trek, they have done it! Good marketing.....maybe the bike isnt that good that they say (of course not) but to say it isnt good, no good angles? and so on...thats kind of weird to me....
 

klunky

Turbo Monkey
Oct 17, 2003
1,078
6
Scotland
Im about 5'10 ish maybe a little more and I rode the complete DH bike yesterday (only on a pavement) in a med and it felt pretty good to me in terms of geom. It felt a touch longer than my med v-10. Will get a proper ride at the weekend.
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
Of course it is..

Byt my point is, it´s a big step between beeing compared to a fulli custom tuned racebike to be just a bad bike. Not even close...
Like big companies can't make mistakes? Look at the car market...
 

- seb

Turbo Monkey
Apr 10, 2002
2,924
1
UK
Any other info? I'm getting pretty confused about that bike..
From what I've heard it's designed with the kind of angles that all the top WC guys use on their "custom geo" bikes. As such if you're a top WC rider it'll rip. If you're a nobody who drags the brakes all the time and doesn't compete at the top level, it'll probably feel crap to you.

No offence Fraser :)
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
It's pretty awkward as riding styles across the wc circut vary. Ie. In dirt commencal article they said that while CG was running ultra short cs the Arthertons couldn't ride on his bike and set the length to max.
Also the bb height seems pretty high for WC racers dream bike. Most of the numbers seem pretty standard so the rider position must be bad.

Anyway it's marketing BS so why are we even talking about it?
 

cubebiker

Chimp
Apr 9, 2008
88
0
My point is that angles and geometry as seen on the Trek page are absolutely nice! If it is like in the diagramm, then the ride must be great. But I do not know if Trek will bring the session out in a different geo.
And most "I rode it" reviews talk of bad geo. But theoretically it can not be that bad. Jonesy is by the way the only one I trust when it comes to a review...
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
Actualy a lot of ppl have problems with his review and he stated here that in the next dirt he will explain some issues about his review.

About the numbers - the most important ones may be fine like bb heigh, cs length, HA but others may be just wrong. Ie. The bike may suggest a rider position that actualy makes it harder to handle the bike. Rider position is one of the most important thing in frame design and you seem to forget that.
 

ilfreerider

Monkey
Oct 3, 2003
268
1
israel
in the dirt review they stated a 63 deg ha ,while other reviews said it is steep.
maybe diff geo for diff sizes (dirt - L , transcend - S ) ???