Price: £2700

Frame: OCLV Carbon fibre

Fork: Rock Shox SID SL

Shock: Rock Shox SID Custom

Stop: Avid MAG

Go: XTR rear mech, XT front and shifters, Bontrager Race Lite
chainset

Wheels: Rolf Propel, Bontrager Super X tyres

Trim: Bontrager stem, Race Lite bars, Race 2014 seatpost Bontrager Race saddle.

Total weight: 22.6lb complete

From: Trek UK – 01908 282626

Approx 40hrs on year 2000 version in Swiss Alps, Yorkshire Moors, Dales and local technical singletrack. Approx 18hrs on year 2001 version in Wisconsin woods and Yorkshire but we’ll keep riding it till we have to give it back.

The STP (“Soft Tail Pro”) was designed to produce the lightest possible bike for Pezzo and other racers that still had enough suspension to take the sting out of impacts and ease the problems she was having with her back when racing hardtails. The resulting soft tail design has now taken two Olympic gold medals – as well as the National points jersey courtesy of Caroline Alexander – and is loved by everyone we know who’s ridden it – yet it still hasn’t received the wide acceptance and popularity of the Sugar.

Trek have been using their OCLV (‘Optimum Compaction Low Void’ or ‘squashed very hard to get as much air and resin out of it’) carbon technology to produce the world’s lightest mainstream production bikes for over ten years now. The 9.9 / 9.8 hardtails now use extended honeycomb sandwich reinforced sections around the bottom bracket and headtube, but the STP keeps the older, slimmer and more flexible narrow guage lugs and tubes.

The suspension is provided by a custom built Rock Shox SID shock that bolts into the aluminium wishbone on the seatstays and is anchored by a combined seatpost clamp and shock mount at the top of the seat tube. The “inch and bit” movement is provided not by any heavy, wear-prone pivots but by flex in the carbon seatstays themselves. This “Softail” isn’t new technology either, having been round on handbuilt exotica from first Moots, then Ritchey, De Kerf and Ibis but it’s never had much success as a mass production concept. Finally geometry is Trek’s Pro set up which uses a sharper and more agile front end than lower-priced Trek’s but keeps a long centre section and mid-length rear end for high speed stability.

The first time we rode it, the immediately obvious characteristic was the way it twisted from front to rear when wrestled hard – but then our debut run was down the Chateaux D’Aix World Cup course in Switzerland. Trek assured us production versions would be stiffer but they also said they flex was designed in to suit the softail characteristics. We were typically cynical, but when we rode the first production bikes back at home we cottoned on. Rather than ricocheting off every impact like most lightweight bikes, the STP actually flows through them, giving exactly the same lateral traction increase and smooothness that the inch of supple travel does in the vertical plain. Since then the more we’ve ridden it (and we’ve been taking it out as often as possible) the more we’ve eaten humble pie.

With the rear shock set up fluid enough (50psi positive, 25psi negative pressure to absorb trail chatter and extend fast and smooth to maintain tyre contact when the trail drops away we’ve thrown this bike through corners as hard of any so called singletrack specialists or plush full travel irons. Even with ‘barely tread’ tyres it manages to hook up on the most treacherous surfaces, eventually sliding out front or rear depending on weight positioning but always easy to pull back thanks to the fast “Pro geometry”.

We’ve ridden this bike through our most technical test singletrack together with aggressive handling ultralight hardtails, ultra lightweight full sussers or plush traction leeches and it’s consistently whipped its tail down the trail faster than any of them even on days we’ve felt lousy.

In terms of impact soak, the spooky smoothness is best illustrated by the fact the STP hardly ever gets chainslap even landing from jumps or rattling down steps and washed out river beds. Ride alongside and you’ll see the shock champing away, but chain and rider stay totally smooth and quiet.

Up front the SID Sl forks can also be twisted to the point of brake rub out of the saddle or through corners, but the lateral flex is a spot on match for the frame. The positive / negative pressure tuning and wide rebound damping adjustment can be set for any ride style. The new compression “almost lock out” on the fork is ideal for smooth sections or hurling yourself forwards out of the saddle towards real or imaginary finish lines, but still moves enough to keep control. The lack of disc brake mounts is our only remaining niggle, but Trek have fitted Rolf’s Propel cat chopper (don’t ask us ask the Forum) wheelset.

Thanks to ceramic rims this means massive, precise anchorage from the ultralight magnesium Avid brakes. The Rolf’s are superlight, agile and track very precisely (we tried them on more rigid bikes too) and wind up to speed with startling speed. As we’ve said the frame brings out the best of the Super X tyres, but the fat carcass reduces pinch flats and the round profile drops easily and smoothly into corners, though they can let fly on off camber rooty sections.

Again the Bontrager Race Lite crank and its square-taper bottom bracket are pretty but slower shifting, heavier and more flexible than the Shimano Hollowtech equivalent. Full marks to Trek for the rear block though. Rather than using the standard dinner plate 9- speed, which has led most racers we know to take off their inner chainring, they’ve fitted a close ratio 11-25 tooth road bike cassette for 27 fully useable race ratios. Elsewhere XTR rear mech. is what we expected with the pro livery, while XT front mech. and shifters cuts the price without noticeably affecting performance.

Bontrager’s Race Lite kit is quality in house gear, but if this bike remains in our custody much longer it’ll be getting a full carbon bar / post overhaul to slice weight down even further.

Barely enough movement to call it travel and a super whippy frame, the STP really should be a noodly nightmare but the more we ride it the more we love it. Ultra lightweight with sinuous, totally ‘quiet’ frame response and unerring traction, this bike lays down power through and out of corners harder than anything else we can think of. Yet it’s noticeably more planted and stable than a standard hardtail: slapping down rocky riverbeds, cutting and pasting with ease over anything that’ll upset the SID’s or just milling down smooth trails in the biggest gear you can find. If we had Pezzo’s clout we’ll admit we’d go for the slightly faster Genesis handling with the softail taking the thrash out of the short back end, but as it is the bike is still just improbably fast. The complete bike is an excellent compromise between performance and component reality, but again if we had the chassis we’d follow the reader reviewer and go the extra mile with lightweight upgrades (USE post, Spline drive chainset, carbon bars, lighter tyres etc.) Have we said we liked it yet?

Performance: 4.5/5
Value: 4/5

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