The groundbreaking science behind Supercaliber

“Cutting-edge testing reveals how Supercaliber Gen 2 is Trek’s fastest and most capable cross-country mountain bike ever

With revamped Isostrut suspension, Supercaliber Gen 2 takes cross-country efficiency, control, and comfort to new levels, so riders can soar up climbs, crush technical descents, and hammer to the podium with plenty of power left in the tank. Geek out with Trek Performance Research Engineers as they explore these performance gains in an unprecedented set of industry-first lab and trail tests.

Efficiency – measured by metabolic mask

After correlating our treadmill surface to the trail, we used a VO2 Master metabolic mask to measure overall rider and bike system efficiency for Supercaliber Gen 2, Supercaliber Gen 1, and a hardtail. This mask measures the rider’s oxygen consumption, which is a metric for the total energy that the rider exerts.

Why not rely on a power meter alone for efficiency comparisons? Power meters only account for energy utilized to propel the bike, neglecting the rider’s effort to absorb repeated impacts and control the bike over rough terrain. Measuring oxygen consumption is therefore the definitive way to determine which bike is the fastest.”

Read the full article at trekbikes.com