Mountain Bike Rider — March 2018

LONG

TERMERS

INTRODUCING

THE RIDER

LAURA BAILEY

PositionCycling

events manager

Mostly rides

Wherever work

takes me

Height5ft 9in

Weight74kg

THE BIKE

■Trek ’s women-

specificendurobike

with 150mm travel

■Getsa160mm

RockShox Lyrik up

fronttotakethehits

■Women’s

finishing kit with

Bontrager women-

specific saddle

■SRAM GX

Eagle 1x12 drivetrain

offers a massive

spread of gears

■The only 27.5in

bike in Trek’s range

withoutPlustyres

LAURA’S TREK REMEDY 8

27.5 WOMEN’S

£2,700 / 27.5in / trekbikes.com

66 mbr MARCH 2018

I

t was pretty much bang on a year ago that

I borrowed a mountain bike and nervously

set off for my fi rst trail ride. Twelve months,

one trip to A&E, several hairy moments, but

lots of laughs and smiles later, it’s safe to say

I’m hooked. So when I was given the opportunity

to join mbr’s longterm test fl eet on a 2018 Trek

Remedy 8 Women’s bike, I jumped at it.

It’s Trek’s ‘All Mountain’ offering, a bike with

150mm travel and some serious heritage. It’s also

the only 27.5in full-suspension bike in the range,

and is the fi ller in a pretty epic sandwich, nestled

between the highly acclaimed Slash and our Bike of

the Year 2017, the Fuel EX.

From the off I was wondering whether this

was going to be too much of a bike for me. Trek’s

description on the website is about getting gnarly,

and spending more time with your tyres off the

ground than on them. My A&E trip stemmed from

poorly executed air time, and I’ve attempted

to keep it rubber-side down ever

since. But I’m excited to experience

something totally different to anything

I’ve ridden before, and see whether

this bike can help me take my skills

up a notch.

With those thoughts fl itting through

my head, I switched to important issues.

What was she going to be called? Yes,

she’s a she; all my bikes are girls. And yes, they

have names. I build a friendship with my bikes,

and I spend a lot of time on them, so it seems only

fair to christen them properly. I have one Trek in

my fl eet already, Stacey, so it had to ring nicely

with that, and I like to give a nod to something

connected to the bike or the brand in someway.

So Ladies and Gents, I’d like to introduce Tracey.

So a little more about Tracey — she carries a

‘women’s’ tag, however, the WSD geometry that

Trek used to push has gone. Instead, a modifi ed

fi nishing kit accounts for the differences between

the sexes. Unsurprisingly, the Remedy is adorned

with a full complement of in-house Bontrager

components, and it’s here you’ll see the women’s

touches — a narrower 750mm handlebar (even

though Trek’s website still states 780mm),

Bontrager Evoke 2 women’s saddle and thinner

grips for our oh-so-delicate dainty derrières and

hands. I fi nd it a touch ironic that after my fi rst few

rides with Tracey, these are two of the only things

I want to change.

Sure, saddle choice is always such a personal

matter, and this one just isn’t for me, and I’m

sporting a sore hands from the Bontrager grips,

which are rock hard with a metal outer lockring.

The other thing that’s clear after just a few rides

is that I could have a wide-eyed, high-paced

few months ahead and I’m itching to

spend more and more time on the

bike, so stay tuned.

MONTH 1: Laura saddles up her new Trek in a bid to

ascertain whether or not women-specific rigs are worth it

WHY IT’S HERE

Is it worth

buying a

women-specific

bike?

Thinner grips were

more hindrance

than help

Tracey (the Trek)

shimmers expectantly

in the winter sun