Normal drivetrain, beefy tires and svelte tubing. The Weird V2 represented solid progress, though not yet a total slam-dunk. The team had ridden the Surly Krampus, which didn’t really feel like a trail bike – but they found the Krampus' Knard tires softened the ride and widened the wheelbase. Then, according to Ted, late in the summer of 2012 Trek got Surly’s wide Knard tires onto their prototype - which provided a real a-ha moment. Also, while the playfulness was nice, keeping the stable, high-speed tracking of a longer wheelbase would be desirable. TREK STACHE 7 WHEELBASE HOW TOThey needed to figure out how to cush it out a bit. They found the short chainstays sat you right over the rear axle, which was good, but also made the ride harsh. Travis has been a long time believer in 29, 29+ and thinks deeply about the dynamics of rim width, tires and frame design. Through that summer, the two bounced ideas off each other. TREK STACHE 7 WHEELBASE PROTravis is a former pro racer, key product tester, mountain bike hall-of-fame inductee and now helps run Trek’s testing program. Regardless, Ted had a few valuable lessons and moved the project forward. The V1 was exciting, but not perfect - and nobody at Trek was really quite sure what to do with that kind of bike. Though you’ll find that at most bike companies. Trek understands the importance of having engineers and designers who are also skilled riders. Internal test riding started with mostly engineers (led by Ted) and product people. Trek Photo (note the 10-speed cassette, chainguide, and normal tires) Jarod completed the V1 prototype in the spring of 2012. According to Ted, he’s one of the best alloy welders around. Jarod Brown started at Trek on the manufacturing floor in the mid 90’s welding Y-Bike rear triangles and is now Trek’s go-to guy for aluminum fabrication. Trek (like all manufacturers) has an in-house proto shop dedicated to fabricating new stuff. Working a little on paper and natively in 3D CAD (Solidworks, if you care), Ted created created something with 420mm chainstays and a steep seat tube which he thought “worked." He sent those initial plans over to Jarod Brown for internal prototype. Short chainstays hadn’t yet become the fashion, and many 29ers still suffered from a tractor-y, disconnected feel and XC tunnel vision. Ted’s initial goal for project weird was to craft an ultra-short chainstay 29er trail bike. (If you want to jump right to the ride report, go ahead, but this is wicked interesting) Ted Alsop, Trek’s lead engineer on the Stache, was kind enough to lay out the bike's development cycle for TGR. TREK STACHE 7 WHEELBASE UPGRADEHowever, if you're looking for a great frame that has tons of upgrade potential and is a little unique, get the Stache.The Stache began as Trek’s ‘Project Weird’ R&D test-bed in early 2012 and evolved, via confluence of design, process, fortuitous events and serendipity, into the category-killing winner it is today. If you don't care that the Roscoe will be a little heavier and that you won't be able to do much to upgrade your rear hub, then that's the way to go in my opinion. Then there's a huge jump up to the Stache 7, which has a similar drivetrain to the Roscoe (with a much better fork, brakes, and wheels), but will run you an extra $1000. Not necessarily the worst thing in the world, but something to consider. The lowest-level Stache is $300 more and downgrades your drivetrain to 1x10 instead of 1x12 (everything else is more or less the same component-wise). However, for the price, the Roscoe 8 has great specs. The Stache is a better frame than the Roscoe - lighter, you get normal a 12x148 thru axle instead of the 141QR that the Roscoe has (stiffer wheel interface and much more in the way of upgrade options if that matters), and it's got sliding dropouts if you have any desire to run it singlespeed.
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