From my recollection of the coverage at release it’s literally the same chain, now labeled as 13sp compatible.
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Found this article interesting, particular the below
section.
“I had zero confidence going into this race, so I had to be a bit more conservative. I didn’t feel great on the day of the race, and I struggled a bit in the race when the pace heated up. Without expectations, I had a little more freedom to be aggressive with my bike setup choices. In the end, I didn’t change anything over last year—well, almost: Last year, I was on 38 mm Barlow Pass tires; this year, I ran 44 mm Snoqualmies. There was a lot of talk of riders running ultra-wide mountain bike tires, big knobbies, that sort of thing. So I thought about taking my gravel bike… However, the last two kilometers are on pavement, slightly downhill, and superfast. In my mind, that makes it a picture-perfect course for my all-road bike with smooth tires from Rene Herse. I figured that, if I get to the finish, I want the fastest setup possible. I might struggle a bit during the sandy sections and the rough doubletrack, but if I survive that, I can make a move at the end.
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More referring to him being sick, his tire choice, or bike choice selection based on the strategy of the sprint finish?
He’s a big guy, but he also recently held 500 watts for an hour. Probably not a guy you want to be in a sprint finish with. Granted everyone is pretty strong at that level.
All of the above I guess. Just curious what all the wider is better crowd would say to his rationale. Don’t agree / disagree just interesting to see someone win on an all road bike with 44 slicks and not 2.2s. I think tires are still a course depenedent and personal choice and lots of testing to still figure out what is best!
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Interesting to see that Paige Onweller stuff 2.2 Kenda Rush’s into her Checkmate. She indicated that she trimmed the knobs but clearly a tight fit. I assume this is still the stock Checkmate.
Trek’s got to be under pressure when their Pro’s are clearly wanting to run the bigger tires. I wonder how short the lifecycle on the current Checkmate frame is going to be? Pay attention at Unbound next year to what the Pro’s are on. It wouldnt shock me if they are on prototypes with more clearance.
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I can’t quite tell from the IG photos, but Lauren Stephens, who won gravel worlds & gravel nationals, said she was riding 47mm Vittoria Terreno at the gravel worlds. I believe she won SBT gravel as well.
Seems in the top 10’s there’s still a blend between 45 & 2.2’s. Not sure if it’s due to clearance or still preferences.
I reckon individual strengths and weaknesses are also a factor. If you have a massive FTP and can motor your way through some sections, and still put in a massive effort at the end, you might choose differently than someone lighter, smaller with, say, better bike handling skills.
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in the article it says he got gapped a lot on more tech areas and chased back on a bunch. So impossible to say for sure, but lets say he was on 2.2s, would it maybe have played out that he wouldnt have been gapped and may ended up gapping others? Ie instead of using energy to chase back on, he could use the energy to break away with others? Who knows, but tires have avantages in certain areas and you got to waste energy in others
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Highly doubt they are already making a new model for next year. Selfishly I REALLY want another muddy unbound soon to see what everyone runs. This set and Dylan Johnson’s for example would never work in wet conditions.
As a side note I really hope Trek doesn’t start showing these types of pics. Enve recently did an article on their pro sponsored rider who also ran a 2.2 recently (same tire I think) and it really bugs me when companies basically say look you can cram 2.2 in here and take credit for their fwd thinking frame…But would turn a blind eye to if you or I did it and damaged the frame they probably wouldn’t be covered under any warranty…
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Did Enve actually name the tire and endorse running a 2.2 on a MOG? It seems like usually companies gloss over such out-of-spec choices and it’s only sickos like us who actually zoom in on the photos and figure out what pros are running.
Agree that it would be a very fast turnaround to bring out a new frame within a year, but right now gravel seems to be evolving as fast as anything. If Specialized were to launch a bike with huge clearance, Trek is going to be forced to react. The key will be seeing what the Trek riders are on as that will give the nod to what’s in the pipeline.
I forwarded the photo of Paige’s bike to my local Trek shop and asked them what they thought about stuffing 2.2’s into a frame spec’d for 45mm. May as well stoke the fire a bit.
Separately, I had hoped to install a Lauf 3rd gen gravel fork on my Checkpoint SLR. It turns out it is not as simple as I thought. I brought it into the Trek shop for them to look at. Lauf ships a lower headset bearing with the fork that is supposed to fit most bikes but it does not fit the Checkpoint. The mechanic at Trek reached out to Lauf to talk to them and ultimately a different sized bearing would need to be used and would void the warranty on both the bike and fork. The mechanic thinks it would be stable to ride but wouldn’t guarantee anything, which is fair. From what I gather is the main concern is something wiggles loose and starts to cause wear inside the headset. Ultimately I’m probably going to just stick with the stock fork and now seriously looking at a Seigla as a bike option for rough gravel courses like Big Sugar.
Yes, with that clearance it would be a nightmare. But a bike with 2.2 clearance and then a set of 45mm tires on it would have been amazing at Unbound 2023. I ran 42s that year on my Checkpoint and was glad I left the 47s off the bike.
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lol yes they didn’t hide it at all.
Agree I put on 42s and think it saved me that year too! Still have PTSD from that mud tho lol
Lemme know what your local Trek store says about the 2.2s!
While I agree with everything you say my understanding is mold to floor is like a 2-3 year process. My guess is a lot of companies saw aero gravel bikes as the next integration but miss the clearance. Wouldn’t surprise me if we say similar releases to the new aspero/checkmate before we see the tire clearance. Who knows tho it might take someone reasons a new 45mm or 50mm gravel tire that’s faster than a Raceking and all of the sudden todays gravel bikes are back in business lol I’m personally not sold as bigger is always better but would love addl clearance no doubt.
That’s might point. Can enve honestly recommend s customer run this setup?
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Wertz won on a 44mm tire that’s faster than the Race King.
If the idea is that using a larger tire, the expected increase in marginal losses from hysteresis and aero drag are greatly outweighed by the decrease in marginal suspension losses. As a course gets smoother or rougher the differences in total rolling resistance will change in favor to narrower or wider. So he picked the right tire for the course, and was able to line up everything else and win.
If, as mentioned above, another rider on 2.2s had been able to maximize the areas of high suspension loss to win, the same argument could be made. Which is what makes gravel, for now, such a compelling sport.
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Pffft, you just grab another DuraAce Di2 front derailleur from your shelf and install it. 
Short answer, obviously now. Even without FD, this is way beyond comfortable for me. Add in mud or even a moderately sized stone and you might have to pick up your spare Enve Mog frame …
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No, it fails ISO standards
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