A quick overview and a podcast that dives into the testing behind Trek’s entry to full-suspension gravel.
It’s often said that gravel bikes are just 90s mountain bikes, and really, there’s a lot of truth to that. The terrain where many of us ride gravel bikes today looks surprisingly close to what mountain bikes traversed in the 90s.
With modern gravel bikes trailing in the footsteps of mountain bikes, the category of full suspension gravel bikes was bound to happen. Niner’s MCR 9 RDO may have been the first of the big brands to do such a thing, but that arguably arrived at a time too soon and before there were good forks to match.
Now, six years after Niner’s attempt, Trek has revealed its entry into full-suspension gravel with a bike called the CheckOut. Compared to that Niner, Trek’s take sits more at the adventure, exploration, and even bikepacking end of the spectrum. With the new Rudy XL suspension fork from RockShox, it has 60 mm of travel up front, matched with 55 mm out back. And yes, this is the same bike we spotted and speculated on after pro Ultra racer Justinas Leveika rode it to win the Trans Balkan Race.
A winning Trek that suggests full-suspension gravel bikes are coming (back)
It looks production-ready, too.
This isn’t a bike review (that will come at a later point), but rather an early and hands-on look at a bike we now have in for testing. Perhaps even more interesting than the bike itself is how Trek approached its testing to determine whether such extra complexity was worthwhile. For that discussion, I chatted with Alex Bedinghaus (lead design engineer) and Kyle Russ (a biomechanical engineer with the analysis team) to learn how a brand the size of Trek (big) is validating its ideas. If you’ve been curious about the role of suspension in gravel, you’ll enjoy this bonus episode of the Geek Warning podcast (note: only members of Escape Collective get the full version of this podcast).
CheckingOut the basics
According to Trek, the CheckOut project began as a rigid bike with progressive (mountain bike-inspired) geometry, which evolved into testing a bike with front suspension, and eventually morphed into a full-suspension gravel bike. The American company claims it was originally designed to be a fun and more capable all-terrain bike to linking together local trails that can be a little boring on modern mountain bikes, but during the design process, the team found the potential for big multiday adventures, and so some features were added for that.
Rides with multiple lunches or just lunch rides. Trek claims the CheckOut is excellent for both.
Converted mountain bikes are currently in vogue, but they typically feature a minimum of 100 mm suspension, a wider crank, and fit dimensions not designed for the increased reach of a drop bar. By contrast, the CheckOut offers a progressive gravel bike geometry that’s not too dissimilar on paper to a bike like the Santa Cruz Stigmata. The longer reaches are designed to be accompanied with shorter stem lengths (for example, a medium ships with a 60 mm stem). Interestingly, the stack heights are particularly tall, indicating that Trek hasn’t built the CheckOut with traditional racing in mind (something its rigid gravel bikes cater to).
The CheckOut has room for 700 x 56 mm tyres (29 x 2.2″), while maintaining a minimum of 6 mm of surrounding clearance. It’s for single chainring setups only and works with either mechanical or electronic drivetrains. It fits gravel-width cranks and road/gravel wheelsets (142×12 mm rear). There’s a T47 threaded bottom bracket, a 31.6 mm seat post, and a UDH dropout. And if you want mounting points for bags and accessories, you’ve got them (more on this later).
Cable routing comes stock through the headset, but remains external at the bar and stem, making fit changes a breeze. Trek has also added ports into downtube and even the option for full-external routing. Goodness, it’s nice to have options.
In case the tall stack heights, lack of aero design, and wiiiiiide bars weren’t enough to keep the racers away, then the 38T maximum allowed chainring size (with either Shimano GRX or SRAM XPLR Wide chainlines) may do it. Meanwhile, 34T is the smallest that Trek suggests.
Currently, the CheckOut is only available in a SL version (OCLV 500), which features carbon fibre front and rear frame triangles connected by an aluminium rocker link that drives the rear shock. The frame is built to mountain bike test standards and so the claimed 2,400 grams (painted, including rear shock) aligns to where I’d expect a second-tier carbon fibre cross-country mountain bike frame to be. I’ll confirm the frame weight for the full review.
Trek is equipping the bikes with a new Bontrager Betasso 700×55 mm tubeless tyre. And up front sits a new Bontrager GR CheckOUT handlebar that features a whole lot of flare, growing 12 cm in width between the tops and drops. The bar on my medium sample measures 42 cm at the hoods and 54 cm at the drops (centre-to-centre).
Trek’s house brand, Bontrager, provides a new handlebar and tyre to match.
Bouncy things
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