Trek Slash Gen. 6 long-term review Part 1: High pivot hauling

When Trek introduced the sixth-generation of it’s Slash, it made waves. High pivot bikes have always had a place in downhill and more and more boutique brands were releasing their own single-crown high pivot options. But Trek is generally more conservative in its decisions. The new Slash is anything but conservative.

We were initially impressed with the Slash Gen. 6, but with some reservations. 12-months in, we have a clearer sense of what the Slash’s strengths are and how some of those durability and maintenance questions actually play out.

The short version is that this new Slash is squarely focused on fun, but maybe not finesse. It’ll let you bash through whatever trails and jumps you want, and probably make you feel like you actually pulled it off. This is a change from the last generation (which Trek seems to still be offering, a year later), a bike that mixed more mellow trail fun with its race pedigree.

But change isn’t a bad thing. The sixth generation of Slash is part an evolution of the Slash name and, at the same time, stands on its own. After 12 months on the Slash, we’re digging past the wow-factor of a brand as large as Trek hopping on the high-pivot bandwagon to see how the bike settles into day-to-day riding.

Wait, Part 1?

So, with five months already into the Slash, what’s the Part 1? Well, Trek offers both a 29” adapter mount, to make the 27.5”/29” stock build a dual 29-er, and a headset cup adapter to change head tube angle as well as the stock flip-chip to adjust shock progression. That is a lot of options, and a lot of ground to cover

Since those options all require parts that are sold separately, except for the progression chip, not all riders will be interested enough to go beyond the stock settings. But, since Trek advertises those options as a feature of the Gen 6 Slash, we also want to cover them for riders that are interested. So those bonus settings are getting their own review.  

Trek Slash Gen. 6 9.9 XO AXS T-Type

Our test bike sits second from the top of Treks slash line. It’s carbon fibre frame, with 170mm rear travel, is equipped with SRAM XO AXS T-Type, RockShox Vivid Ultimate shock, 170-mm RockShox Zeb Ultimate fork, Code Silver brakes, Bontrager Line Pro 30 carbon fibre wheels and a SE5 and SE6 tire combo, and 820mm-wide Bontrager RSL integrated bar-stem combo. For our XL test bike, there’s a 170mm RockShox Reverb AXS dropper post.

That’s all quite fancy and, other than never really getting along with Bontrager tires during the wet months on the west coast, it’s all held up quite well. The Vivid Ultimate did start losing air and require a rebuild early on in the test. But it’s held up well ever since. The Zeb Ultimate fork continues to be rock-solid and smooth and the XO AXS works as well now as it did on day one.

All that brings the Slash Gen.6 XO AXS T-Type in at a hefty $12,000.00 price tag in Canada.

High pivot vs. high maintenance

While the XO drivetrain still shifts as well as it did on day one, it is not as quiet as it first was. For the first few weeks, I did marvel that Trek had managed to make the Slash quiet and feel efficient, despite the two added pulley wheels (an idler pulley above the chainring to manage chain growth and another below for tension to the rear derailleur).

That didn’t last. Or, rather, keeping the Slash quiet while pedalling required meticulous drivetrain maintenance. If the drivetrain was at all dirty, it quickly got loud while pedalling and even with a generous 19-tooth pulley wheel, felt noticeably less efficient on climbs. Part of this could be due to the less-than-perfect chainline between the upper idler and the chainring. That also caused very uneven wear on that pulley wheel, which I discovered when I pulled it off to put on the North Shore Billet replacement pulley wheel. This may not be an issue if you don’t ride in the wet or in dusty conditions or if you’re doing more shuttling and lift-access riding than pedalling. But, if you’re regularly self-powering long climbs, you will definitely start to notice the extra drag.

The counter point to that is that is, thanks to the high pivot letting the rear wheel move without effecting the chain, very impressive clinmbing technical trails. It’s not fast, but it’ll winch up damn near anything if you’re willing to put in the work. It is also, for a high pivot, weirdly good at quick standing efforts. That helps keep momentum and flow when descents are interrupted by punchy ups.

Long term riding review: Slash loves speed and taking chances

When the Slash rolled out into public view last summer, Trek was clear it still wanted this to be more than a race bike. While the last Slash tread a line between enduro race bike and everyday trail bike with a lot of travel, this sixth generation is more of a bruiser.

Slash Gen.6 does, unlike some high pivot bikes, have a broader range of abilities. It is fun for more than just going fast. But it’s most fun when you’re riding it most aggressively. Whether that’s going fast, hitting jumps or drops, hitting corners as hard as you can or just charging through really rough terrain. It’s helped along by the stock MX (27.5″ rear wheel, 29″ front) design, which makes this big bike easier to handle and, especially, more fun to corner. This keeps the Slash entertaining when the trails mellow out relative to its capabilities. Shorter riders will also appreciate more clearance from the small rear wheel.

A forgiving friend on the trails

The Slash is also helped by a forgiving frame, which is sort of uncharacteristic for Trek. Unlike the Fuel EX, which is borderline uncomfortable to ride, the Slash doesn’t beat you up if you get slightly off line. Its a bit more forgiving in rough, off-camber sections than just its 170-mm rear travel alone. It doesn’t feel vague or loose, but it also doesn’t feel hard.

The most impressive handling trait of the Slash is, though, it’s ability to absorb big hits and rough landings like they’re nothing. High pivot suspension designs are popular in part because they reduce or eliminate pedal kick back, and that really helps the Slash. It has an uncanny ability to take the sting out of big drops, and rough cases, and immediately finds traction even when sending it into the loosest mess of a trail. (This was all doubly true when I replaced the stock Bontrager tires with a heftier and grippier set of Goodyear Wranglers). I’m not the bravest soul on two wheels by any stretch of the imagination. But the Slash’s ability to take, and smooth out a hit convinced me to hit a few features I wouldn’t otherwise. It also encouraged me to go back and try again, when I cased the first attempt.

Quiet when it counts, noisy at others

The Slash is both a quiet bike on the trails and, compared to a more conventional suspension design, sometimes a little bit noisier. 

Despite the distinctively shaped chain protection designed to keep the chain silent, the Slash is quite rattly when descending in the smaller cogs when you hit any kind of continuously rough trail. With how close the chain sits to the chain stay, there’s probably no way around that. But, with those beefy carbon fibre chain stays, it does make some sound even through the rubber. While we’re at it, the BITS head-tube stash tool also rattles enough that I rarely rode with the tool installed. 

That said, it is also a very quiet bike when more conventional rigs might not be. The Slash absorbs big hits not just with composure, but without audible complaint. It’s not always as easy to take note of the absence of sound, but a good example is when a friend marveled how quiet it was absorbing a 5-ish foot janky drop into loose rocks. In that scenario, the Slash feels as composed as it sounds. It is entirely undisturbed by the flat landing made up of loose rubble. There was no rattle, no ricocheting off line and, as a result, fewer second thoughts about the sort of feature that might give me pause on another bike. And that is a really good thing. 

Long term review: Trek Slash Gen. 6 steps up

With the sixth generation of Slash, Trek makes a bike that is arguably more specific in purpose than the last Slash, but also much more capable. It also has a broader appeal than some other exclusively race-focused high pivot designs in the same travel range, though it still requires the attention to regular maintenance of a high pivot bike. That broad appeal is, whether racing or riding, skewed towards more aggressive riding on the most challenging terrain. Again, fun and fast, but not necessarily a machine that rewards finesse.