Trek Unveils Their Fastest 29er Lineup Ever
Trek Bicycle today lifted the curtain on the 2013 Superfly line of cross country 29ers, the company’s lightest and fastest 29ers ever. The new bikes were completely redesigned for 2013 through an all-new development process, dubbed the Apollo Project. Apollo is a collective of Trek’s top designers and engineers tasked with creating lighter, faster, and more nimble bikes for riders the world over. The result of removing development restrictions and the re-imagined process of the Apollo Project is a gravity-defying Superfly SL frame that brushes the scale at a mere 896 grams, with its full-suspension sibling, the Superfly 100 SL frame weighing just 1850 grams.
To build the world’s fastest XC race 29ers, Trek focused on two key rider-beneficial areas: weight and efficiency. Members of the Apollo Project split into two independent groups, each consisting of an even number of engineers from carbon, manufacturing, and design. The two groups then set upon removing weight from every aspect of the bike, completely independent of what the other team was developing. After working for a given period to reduce weight wherever possible, the groups converged to present their findings and extract the best of what each team had developed.
The result is a 30% reduction in surface area to previous generations on the 2013 Superfly SL hardtail, and a 22% reduction in weight on the Superfly 100 frame. The 2013 Superfly SL hardtail gains closed rear dropouts for improved stiffness, and a unique post-mount brake design that allows the caliper itself to act as a brake bridge, improving stiffness while removing redundant material from the stays. The Superfly SL has double the vertical compliance of its predecessor thanks to Trek’s all-new roll-wrap seat tube, which features an independently manufactured seat tube bonded into the frame. Both frames are optimized for internal cable and brake hose routing,with the Superfly 100 SL sporting stealth cable routing for rear shock remote lockouts while also employing Trek’s Microtruss integrated zip-tie mounts to allow external routing without excess hardware.
