2018 TREK STACHE 5 UPDATE
2018 TREK STACHE 5 PRO
2018 TREK STACHE 5 PLUS

I'm surprised, based on my experience and other folks that I've talked to, that Rob isn't running the chainstays all the way long. My friend’s bike with a 68 degree HTA feels twitchy now.' However, slight modifications to riding style and weight balance and I don’t notice it at all anymore. ' I would say that during the first couple rides I noticed the front wheel wandering a bit more when climbing. It doesn't sound like a big change, and the bike is still steep by current hardtail standards, but Rob noticed an immediate difference in performance. This pushes the HTA out an extra -1.4° which winds up around 67° static. Rob has a 9Point8 SLACK-R angleset installed in his Stache. I can't understate how much of an inspiration my time on the Stache was in terms of my own custom rigs, and my love of 27+ and 29+ setups, especially on hardtails. These bikes like to be climbed out of the saddle and they get moving fairly quickly on the way down as well.

2018 TREK STACHE 5 PRO

Plus, I really felt with big tires run low and the Pike and Mattoc Pro that I ran on the front, that the overall stiffness of the bike was very balanced in every direction. The frames aren't particularly stiff in the back end, but the elevated stay looks unique and it's damn quiet. Sort of like Robert Redford and Brad Pitt doing Operation Dinner Out, only they had snappier suits and cool hats. Actually, the first time I saw the 29+ Stache in person I couldn't help but wonder if the whole platform was conceived by a couple of former Gary Fisher Bikes employees long-forgotten in some windowless converted basement storage room Waterloo, Wisconsin. It's certainly happened to plenty of smaller companies that tried to get into the carbon game.

Having to sell enough units of fantastic-plastic to amortize the molds while the aluminum version stagnates. I can't help but wonder if the carbon fibre version was this bike's undoing.

A straighter seat tube, thanks to the longer stays, would make room for a second set of bottle bosses, and they might as well make it a bit shorter on each size while they're at it. These aren't zippy and whippy pump-track hardtails, and they'd be so great with longer rear centers for improved weight distribution and climbing performance and slacker head angles for the speed and terrain they're capable of hitting. Sadly, in my opinion, the platform never received the geometry it deserved.

2018 TREK STACHE 5 PLUS

Trek may have cancelled the good Plus tires they made - the 29x3' SE4 and SE2 - but you can still buy a brand new Stache frame in aluminum or carbon. *Yes, I'm giving them a pass for swapping the bar-con shifters for STI a few years back.

2018 TREK STACHE 5 UPDATE

I love the bike and I wish Trek had continued to develop the platform and update the geometry.

Between having reviewed the bike and being a nerd for any rig with sliders, I've corresponded with many Stache owners since 2017 and Rob and his rig are a great stand-in for all of them. If Trek has ever made a bike worthy of having its own fan club it's either this beast or the timeless 520*. The giant smiles and genuine love the crazy conveyance invokes from its pilot. The massive, unique, sliding drop out system. The aesthetic genuinely offends some folks. Jokes about Session-like-appearances aside, all the trail bikes look the same. They're not offending anyone with crazy slack head tube angles (HTA) on the short travel bikes or triathlon steep seat tube angles (STA) on the big bikes. The shocks are still supported and Trek sells hardware kits to swap them out for current double-eyelet shocks as well.īut, even though they manage some awesome paint jobs, and while the geometry is current, all of their rigs are what you'd expect from a great big bicycle company. On the used market, the bikes with proprietary DRCV shocks are even a reasonable buy. Know your terrain and buy the right size of Slash, Remedy, or Fuel EX and I think you're going to be a happy camper out on the trails.

2018 trek stache 5