“The most capable all around MTB you can buy”
The Good: Trek have hit a home run in the first year of this bike's existence. It rides everything you can throw at it and will have you wondering why you need to own other bikes. 7" of suspension that you would never know you have when you're climbing and totally active and bottom-less when you're pinning it. The bike is light and flickable in the air, it's seat-angle is ideal for raising the post and climbing. The wheels and tires are outstanding as is the DHX 4.0 rear shock, now with only 3 clicks of Pro-pedal making it much less of a pain in the arse to use.
The Bad: Being an entry level spec there are a few parts that could be better. Most notably the Fox 36 Vanilla R which suffers from a lack of low and high-speed compression damping and as a result is too easily bottomed and dives in the steeps. The dual ring setup in my opinion adds unneeded weight and is loud through rough sections of trail. But this is easily remedied with a simple single ring and guide setup. As with all the gravity oriented Trek offerings for 2010 it would be nice if wider bars were offered (you can always cut them).
30lbs with a few upgrades is perfectly reasonable and still totally capable.
