fat bike trek farley 8

The Trek Farley 8 Loves Snow—And More

A versatile fat bike that' s ready to go anywhere

The lack of precipitation and warm winter temperatures forced me to ride the Farley on terrain not often associated with fat bikes and it was surprisingly fun. Sure, fat bikes are made for (and excel in) soft sand or snow but I’m starting to wrap my head around the fact that they have their place on regular trails too—the rougher and more poorly maintained the better. Trek’s Farley bridged the gap between soft surface and hardpacked trail riding as well as any fat bike I’ve ridden. As a result, I took it on a lot of adventurous rides, including two unforgettable bikepacking trips .

I’ve ridden quite a few fat bikes, and the Farley seems to be skewed to the performance side of the spectrum. Trek’s Alpha aluminum frame fits a lot like their race bikes. The Farley 8 comes with 3.8” wide Bontrager Hodag tires on 80mm wide Bontrager Jackalope tubeless-ready wheels, so it doesn’t lay down the ultra-wide footprint that some fat bikes do. It also has 170mm rear hub spacing, so you can’t go a whole lot wider with your tires because of chainstay clearance and chainline constraints. But that’s not a bad thing. This tire size gives it a fast, sporty feel that reminded me a lot of the carbon Salsa Beargrease that I reviewed over a year ago. However, it doesn’t quite float across soft surfaces like a 4.5-plus-inch wide tire will, so there is a trade-off. For quite some time I thought that suspension on a fat bike would be pointless because the low pressure, high volume tires do so much of the work. I was wrong. The Rockshox Bluto fork adds comfort and control to the ride much like it does on a regular mountain bike. It tends to do its best work on mid- to large-size hits because the soft, low-pressure tire soaks up most of the small irregularities on the trail. I especially appreciated the Bluto’s forgiving ride on snowy trails with frozen footprints, which make for an eye-rattling ride on rigid fat bikes. The Bluto worked great even when temperatures dipped into the low teens. On dirt, the suspension fork allowed me to run slightly higher tire pressures for better handling and less of a tendency to autosteer (the tire’s tendency to pull inward while cornering due to the its ultra wide contact patch with the ground) on hardpack surfaces too.

Overall the spec is spot-on for most fat bike uses. I love the simplicity of SRAM’s 1x11 groups and the X1 on this Trek rocks. On soft terrain, the 30-tooth chainring offers a low enough gear to get up any climb that traction will allow but in the dirt it can feel a bit tall. All of that traction left me wanting a few lower gears on prolonged steep stretches of trail. Since Trek used SRAM’s X1 1000 crank with its integrated spider, a 30-tooth chainring is the lowest you can go without swapping out the crank for one with a bolt-on spider. The other time I wanted lower gears was while bikepacking, where the weight really took its toll. There, I was begging for the double chainring found on the lower priced ($1,870) Farley 6.

The braking power and consistency from Avid’s DB3 hydraulic disc brakes with 6-inch rotors surprised me. For most typical fat bike uses, they offer pretty good power and heat resistance. It wasn’t until I took it into the dirt that I felt the need for more. And when I took it bikepacking, that 60-plus pound bike really smoked the rear brake on one particular descent that dropped through three different mountain ecosystems in just a few miles. It now squeals and feels inconsistent at the lever. New pads, a rotor, and a bleeding should get the brake back in action, but I’d consider upgrading to larger rotors, SRAM’s new Guide, or a Shimano brake if big descents are in your plans. The only item really missing from the Farley 8 for me is a dropper post. The frame will accept one—there's a stealth-routed port for the hose or cable at the bottom of the seat tube. Since I had only a non-stealth style available in the 31.6 size, I ran the cable through the unused front derailleur’s internal routing in the top tube for a clean look. The ability to drop the post on the fly really cranks up the fun factor and made steep descents much easier. Just as I was wrapping up this test, Trek offered a peek at its revamped Farley line for 2016. The new model features aluminum and carbon frames, a new lighter aluminum rigid fork, a 600 gram all-carbon rigid fork, and clearance for wider 5” tires. Rear axle spacing on these new models jumps out to 197mm to accommodate the wider tire and so does the crank spindle width. Trek uses a new PF121 bottom bracket that allows it to keep the existing Q-factor. Bontrager will also offer a new 27.5” x 4” tire-and-rim combo that’s aimed at dirt performance for the 2016 Farley. But you’ll have to wait for these new bikes—the aluminum models will be offered in September and the carbon in October.

Trek’s 2015 Farley 8 is a well-sorted performance-oriented fat bike that scoots across the soft stuff in a hurry. The good news is that the fun doesn’t end in the spring. This fat bike is just as fun in the dirt, where it lets you climb seemingly impossible pitches and confidently bomb down technical terrain. PRICE: $3,150 WEIGHT: 30.0 lb.

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2016 Trek Farley EX 8

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• Rider Notes

2017 Trek Farley EX 8

A 27.5″ aluminum frame full suspension fat bike with upper mid-range components. Compare the full range

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A bike with lower gearing will be easier to ride up steep hills, while a higher top end means it will pedal faster down hills.

Farley EX 8

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The Farley EX doesn't need your snow or your sand- but it'll handle it just fine - while being a dirt and rock shredder with little compromise...

Read Review

Jun 2017 · Russell Eich

The most mountain bike feeling fat bike yet. Buy if you want one bike for all seasons, or an extremely stable trail bike, and aren't concerned about pure dry trail performance

Impressive rear suspension, has a very mountain bike feeling, wheelies and manuals with ease

Bluto fork overworked, small tire knobs, busted rear rim

While the Farley EX 9.8 resides within Trek’s fat bike family, its capabilities reach far beyond winter thanks to a unique design. Check out the Mtbr long term review. - Mtbr.com

Mar 2017 · McCoy

Traction To The Max!

Nov 2016 · Todd Aalgaard

The recall impacts 4,635 bikes worldwide, Trek says.

A problem with the bike's fork could lead to injury

Check out our Trek Farley review to see how the Waterloo, Wisconsin brand's fatbike performed in the snow.

While Zach and Tim are seasoned fat bike riders, I was uninitiated. So, on a short trip to Ohio to do a little long term editorial planning, I borrowed a Trek Farley from the local shop and Zach planned a ride. Being a basically all-29er-all-the-time (with suspension) type mountain biker, this would be quite a …

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Teton Tested: Can The Trek Farley EX Full Suspension Fatbike Do It All?

Is there a bike out there you can just throw your leg over to crush any terrain the whole year round? Extremes like DH and XC aside, Trek is getting really close with its new Farley EX 9.8 fatbike.

Check out the bike’s marketing video below; big props for nice creative that took months to execute and some sharp match-frame editing. My content-marketing brain salutes you.

Fatbikes have evolved significantly since their early, slow-crawling, snow-tank days. There are now carbon race, full-suspension and good old-fashioned steel bruiser flavors. In 2015 and early 2016 fatbike sales boomed with Midwestern, Southwestern, and Southern states leading the charge (though dipping toward the end of last year). People who ride them love and stay on them year-round. It's easy to see why Trek doubled down on the category.

But just how far can these grip-mongers go in today’s hard-charging trail world?

At 32 pounds, the Farley EX feels light-ish for a fatbike. It's only about four or five pounds over a high-end 120/130mm trail bike. It comes tubeless, of course. (Running tubes in fat tires would add two pounds.)

Dialing suspension settings on the Farley EX requires about 3 to 5 rides for experimentation. It takes a bit to figure out if your tires are too soft and the hydraulics too hard, or the other way around. I wound up running about 8.5psi in my tires (7 on snow) and slightly less than recommended pressure in the fork and shock (who knows, maybe I lost some weight). Though I did find that once you settle into the bike’s trail capabilities, you start to run higher tire pressure.

As with all other Trek bikes, fit and finish are high quality. A matte-black with red paint scheme and carbon parts come together very well.

Lets get this out of the way: This bike climbs everything. Everything. Really, your legs are its only limitation. I reviewed Trek’s (rigid) Farley 9.8 last year and loved it, but the EX adds another dimension for technical ascending, descending, and rocky trails.

During my few setup rides, I felt the extra tire grip while braking, added to what is essentially a top-end 32/33lb trail bike, can flex the Rockshox Bluto fork’s 32mm stanchions. Rowdy trail bikes usually come with 34mm stanchion forks, though there just aren’t many options in the Fat market outside of the Bluto. The Farley is an aggressive bike which begs you to ride it harder than other fatbikes, so torsional and braking loads placed on the fork from its wide tire/rim combo probably exceed those of a ‘normal’ setup. You will ram the Farley hard into more stuff.

However, once I found the right PSI for fork and tires, as well as settings (one click from open on dampening and more toward the middle in rebound), that flex was minimized and it operated well. I never had to back off of anything rough because of the fork.

For downhill and technical sections I’d drop my heels to bore those 3.8 tires deep into whatever surface I was on. The RE:aktiv shock always remained active and smooth in ice/snow, damp trail or rock gardens. Trek’s ABP braking and full floater suspension technologies really steady the ship. Some trail damping credit can go to fat tires, but this suspension remains responsive under any condition.

Some bikes' platform damping negate the need to play with a shock's compression, but here the open/middle/climb switch makes a difference—in a good way. Middle is fine for most things, but if you know you’re in for a climb or a ripping descent, it’s easy to reach down and flip the lever on the fly.

While riding, the insane amount of trail-quieting carbon, tire volume and capable suspension can lull you into thinking you’re not going fast. But you are. More than once I’d look back to see my usual crew quite far behind me. Also, more capability means less stops or dabs down. So you’re faster over the course of a whole ride. Where others put a foot down over a slick skinny, I’d keep rolling.

In terms of technique: On regular fatbikes you can approach technical sections with a bit less speed, picking through features without fear of losing traction. With the Farley EX, ramping up speed and power into technical sections, the way you would a regular trail bike, is more the norm. Though planting your tires on nasty rock and expecting them to grab like a handhold works fine. It’s an interesting balance, somewhere between fatbike and trail bike riding. Lots of body English.

We finally got a bit of snow here in the East, so I took it out on our shit-show trails of thawed-then-frozen ice, loose leaves and dirt. While most folks walked much of the way, I was on the regular Farley I’d been riding for months. To me, everything was fine. And that’s what this bike is about.  

When others flop around like salmon in the bottom of a boat, you keep pedaling like nothing’s wrong. There is no day on which you can't roll it out of the garage. 

The bike’s superior trail capabilities make you think about a couple things. I would be curious to run some dirt-specific rubber and get the Farley away from the Bontrager Hodag tires’ even, round profile. The Hodag is a solid fatbike tire, its transition from center to side is smooth, though not snappy and the sidewall is soft, like other fat tires. I feel a Maxxis 3.8 Minion FBR/FBF combo on dirt would be awesome. I personally prefer tires with distinct transition zones and slightly burlier shoulders. Of course tall knobs aren’t great for snow. For snow, the Hodags are great so far.

Also, you really need to run a pound or two more PSI than other fatbike’s tires before rip-snorting it through rock gardens. The only flat I had was on an aggressive trail ride; I flipped the shock’s switch to climb through a fast, flat area and then neglected to flip it back when re-entering a rougher section. Tearing through the rocks with the back locked out pinched the rear tire.

Once you re-train your brain away from thinking it's a fatbike, you're set for anything. It comes off the car and it's the right bike for wherever you are. And it's fun. The poppy little jumps, boosts and features you enjoy so much on other bikes can be enjoyed with this one. It isn't lumbering.

One of the nicest benefits is the triple-crown confidence which enters your mind as you approach any trail feature. "I've got crazy grip, mad rollover, and phenomenal trail suspension—nothing will go wrong". It leaves you free to have at it and enjoy the ride.

Fork: 120mm travel RockShox Bluto RL Shock: Fox Performance Float EVOL, RE:aktiv 3-position damper Wheels: Trek Wampa Carbon 80 SL 150x15 front, 197x12 rear Tires: Bontrager Hodag 27.5 x 3.8 (race width!) Crank: Race Face Next w/30T Direct Mount Narrow-Wide Rear derailleur: SRAM X01 Cassette: SRAM 11-speed 10-42 Seat post: Bontrager Drop Line 125mm Handlebar: 750mm OCLV Carbon Bontrager Line Pro Stem: Bontrager 35mm Brakes: SRAM Guide Weight: 32.30 lbs Price: $5,499.99

$5,499 is a pretty competitive price—regardless of fatness—for any full suspension carbon-fiber frame (Farley’s chainstays are aluminum) with carbon wheels, carbon handlebars, Raceface Next cranks, Sram guide brakes, X1/X01 drivetrain, fox shock, rockshox fork and a nice dropper post.

The Last Word

Are you going to race XC on the Farley EX? I guess you could in the Fatbike category, though hardtail fatties will be lighter. Are you going to enter an Enduro? That would be a stretch. You wouldn’t win, but with sanity you might survive. The point is; such a wonderful set of capabilities come together—exceeding all expectations you had of a fattie—that any thoughts of what you'd like to ride can be entertained. Any condition in any season will be a great trail ride.

If you just want one mountain bike that can handle pretty much all terrain the Farley EX is it. You never have to get off it. It’s not remarkably heavier than your normal mountain bike. Gone are moments where bikes aren’t right for terrain. Something about that is nice.

It should also be noted the Farley EX does not ride like a plus-tire trail bike. The grip and feel of the tires is still distinctly ‘Fat’. Is the best bike for every condition? No. But that will never exist. Farley is a jack-of-all-trades. And a very capable Jack at that.

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Editor-at-Large, IMBA instructor and east-coaster. Raced Trans-Savoie in France, SoCal Enduro and Endurance in Temecula and is psyched for all the great new races in the east. Article Ideas: [email protected]

February 28 th , 2017

Excellent Review for an excellent bike!

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Trek Farley Ex 8

• AUS $ NZD $ USD $ CAD $ GBP £ EUR €

Colour / California Sky Blue

Size / 15.5", 17.5", 19.5", 21.5"

Weight / 35 lb 0 oz (15,876 g)

At a glance

ABP (Active Braking Pivot), Internal cable routing

Where To Buy

Specifications

• Frame Alpha Platinum aluminum, downtube guard, and internal cable routing
• Fork RockShox Bluto RL, Solo Air, TurnKey lockout, Maxle Lite, 120mm
• Shock FOX Performance Float EVOL, RE:aktiv 3-position damper, tuned by Trek Suspension Lab, 7.25" x 1.875˝
• Hubs Bontrager alloy sealed bearing, Front: 15mm x 150mm Rear: 12mm x 197mm
• Wheels SunRingle Mulefut 80 SL, 32 hole, tubeless strips and valves sold separately
• Wheel Size 27.5"
• Tires Bontrager Hodag, 3.8" tubeless ready, Inner Strength sidewalls, aramid bead
• Chain 440mm, N/A, 28 tooth, direct mount, narrow-wide, SRAM PC-1110
• Crank Race Face Aeffect
• Bottom Bracket 315mm, PF121
• Rear Derailleur SRAM GX
• Shifters SRAM GX, 11-speed
• Brakeset SRAM Level T, SRAM Level T
• Handlebar Bontrager Line, 35mm diameter, 15mm rise, 750mm width
• Saddle Bontrager Evoke 2, chromoly rails
• Seatpost Bontrager Drop Line, internal cable routing, 125mm drop, 100mm drop (15.5"), 31.6mm, Standard single bolt, 31.6mm, Standard single bolt
• Stem Bontrager Line, 35mm clamp, 0 degree
• Grips Bontrager Race Lite, lock-on
• Headset FSA IS-2

Q: How much is a 2018 Trek Farley Ex 8?

A 2018 Trek Farley Ex 8 is typically priced around $3,500 USD when new. Be sure to shop around for the best price, and also look to the used market for a great deal.

Q: Where to buy a 2018 Trek Farley Ex 8?

The 2018 Trek Farley Ex 8 may be purchased directly from Trek .

Q: How much does a 2018 Trek Farley Ex 8 weigh?

A 2018 Trek Farley Ex 8 weights 35 lb 0 oz (15,876 g).

Q: What size wheels does the 2018 Trek Farley Ex 8 have?

The 2018 Trek Farley Ex 8 has 27.5" wheels.

Q: What size 2018 Trek Farley Ex 8 should I get?

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Trek Farley 9.8 — The Winter Review

18 minutes away from my home trails of Cuyuna rests Lake Mille Lacs. It’s 20 miles long, and 26 miles wide. In the winter the lake provides a landscape that more resembles the North Pole than central Minnesota. For fat-bikes, an unmapped, untouched destination waiting to be discovered. Yet this month we’ll be crossing Mille Lacs on fat bikes. The Trek Farley 9.8 and Barbegazi tread are good allies to cover this land mass on frozen water.

Before we dive head first into this review, if you haven’t already, please read the  summer review  of the Trek Farley 9.8. For the purpose of time, this review will deal exclusively with the winter performance of the Farley 9.8 on snow.

Let’s not waste any time getting to the heart of the matter on this review. How did the Farley 9.8 perform on groomed single track, double track, and over the hills and through the frozen tundra woods?

27.5″ Wampa rims + Hodag tread on snow. This was a complete surprise to me. I seriously enjoyed the 27.5″ experience on snow. Right away in our winter season we received an ideal amount of snow to mechanically groom our single track. Our single track is 20″ wide, if you tread outside of that sweet spot you’ll get into loose snow that can take you over the bars without notice.

Throughout my experience of riding on our single track the rolling momentum of the 27.5″ wheel set on snow was very good. The Wampa carbon wheel set continued it’s fast rolling attitude that I enjoyed in the summer. The ride experience was held back slightly by the lack of carving ability, but I’d squarely focus that symptom on the Hodag sidewall tire tread. If a Hodag 2.0 existed with a serious sidewall tread, I think we’d be off and running (and carving) on the winter groomed single track.

Snow climbing performance. The good news for both the Hodag and Barbegazi tires is they both had zero problems in climbing any single track hills.

During the course of the past few months I also had an opportunity to ride the Farley 9.8 and the original Farley back to back on the same trail. This experience was essential to understand how far Trek has taken the new Farley 9.8 in terms of overall weight, responsiveness and climbing ability.

Upon saddling up the original Farley I was immediately aware of how heavy the rear end of that bike was in comparison to the Farley 9.8. I would equate the new 9.8 to what felt like a paperweight in comparison to the original Farley when climbing uphill. Keep in mind at the time (2013), the original Farley felt fast as could be! Kudos to Trek for that evolution. Having the ability to effortlessly climb hills was something I didn’t notice until I was on the original Farley. Sometimes you don’t know how good you have it, until it’s gone. This is a hallmark of what makes the 9.8 stand out.

The Trek Farley 9.8 rests amid a Lake Mille Lacs ice pressure ridge on it’s north coast. In the background rests a well known Minnesota winter activity – fishing on ice in what we call a shack.

The geometry and lines of the Farley 9.8. Stiff, stable, and ready to party.

Enter the 26″ x 4.7″ Barbegazi.

After riding the 27.5″ Wampa wheel set for about a month I changed everything out. Out with the 27.5,” on with the 26.” Time to roll a serious fatty.

Barbegazi is a great snow tire tread for double track trails. Trails like we have in Cuyuna such as the Cuyuna Lakes State Paved Trail (10′ wide) or the Sagamore Unit (4′ wide). In Wisconsin, I’d highlight the Fat Bike Birkie trails where the Babegazi would gobble up and destroy other tires. When I pedaled Barbegazi on the double track trails I instantly shot forward in the pack. The reduced tread provided reduced rolling resistance which allowed me to gain speed on other cyclists who were slowed by the more aggressive tread pattern designed for groomed single track. Take special note on this depending on your preferred riding trails and conditions and upcoming race courses!

On the groomed single track it was noticeable that the Barbegazi had difficulty carving into the firm groomed snow on the fast, bermed-up corners. Cornering was doable, but not as intuitive as I have become to enjoy with other tire treads. Turning, rolling, and flowing was natural for the Farley and Barbegazi in the flow sections of the single track trails, but in comparison to the cornering performance of a 45NRTH Beist or Van Helga tire, Barbegazi finished in second place. Again though, take those same three tires out on the double track and you’d be pleased as punch to be riding the Barbegazi. So, focus on your trail riding preferences, and you’ll unlock the keys to Farley 9.8’s success.

Here’s my thought. If I were to race/ride a fat-bike course that was mostly cross-country ski width trail, I’d mount the Barbegazi. The Farley 9.8 would roll as fast as the wind would blow and provide the necessary traction without adding any unnecessary rolling resistance. However, if racing a mostly single track race course, I’d proudly straddle the Farley 9.8 for it’s super fast climbing ability and rigid frame, and mount a 26″ x 4.7″ tire that provided a more aggressive sidewall tread. I believe the Farley 9.8 will reach it’s full potential when Bontrager releases the next tire that goes after an sidewall tread for ultimate single track carving.

Farley’s stranglehold dropout again changed the “default setting” of the fat-bike world providing the ability to switch between wheel sets.

Getting ahold of the Stranglehold dropout. When I wrote the review on the  original Farley , Trek mentioned at that time they designed the original 3.8″ Farley to harness the width of the 3.8″ or 4.0″ fat-bike tire. At that time (2013) Trek’s position for this decision was made to increase speed, and to minimize rolling resistance on groomed fat bike trails.

And, with Farley 9.8 you still have that option of riding a 27.5″ x 3.8″ or 26″ x 4.7″ or 29″ x 3.” I’m personally hoping for an opportunity to ride 3.0″ (29″ or 27.5″) tires on groomed single track in the near future. Providing grooming techniques provide a solid/compact groomed base and the 3″ tire has a purpose-built snow tread, I think we’d be walking into a new generation of cycling that will gain traction fast.

Thanks to the Stranglehold we have one bike that could do all of the above. It’s still a year or two ahead of it’s time, but, what a deal to actually have the opportunity to try on this many wheel sizes for different riding experiences on one bike. (Providing you have the cash for 3 wheel sets) Also, as a passing note, I placed the rear axle in many different places within the dropout with both wheel sets to see if I noticed a difference in steering, cornering, rigidity. After many test rides I conclude that I could not tell a performance difference in position.

That’s okay, quite OK. The main point is you as the rider have the ability to have it your way when it comes to wheel size. If the trails are super hard-pack groomed with very little loose snow, throw on the 27.5″ and let ‘er rip. If you just received fresh snow and the trail crew groomed last night, install the 26″ wheel set and enjoy the additional float in the loose snow that otherwise might take your tire for a wild ride. If your trails allow 3″ on the groomed single track, and the trails are super hard, and super strong, guess what, let the 3″ tire rip! Plenty of different flavors to enjoy when rolling this fatty.

Always in season the RaceFace Next SL cranks. The only thing I’d change within this photo is swapping out the front chain ring for an elliptical Wolftooth Components chainring. The elliptical ring from my winter flat pedal riding experience provides a nice improvement on pedaling energy ROI.

In closing buying advice. If you are looking for a lightweight, sharp-looking, well-equipped, easy to climb year-round fat-bike the 9.8 is a solid choice. I would suggest purchasing an additional 26″ tire set for groomed single track riding featuring an aggressive sidewall tread to increase the carvelicious factor. A summer consideration would be to install a suspension fork, the added weight wouldn’t be that great, but I think the ride quality would be amazing.

Future opportunities. Here’s my personal wish list for the ’17 Farley: • A 27.5″ x 4.0″ tire with aggressive sidewall tread for winter carving. I think there’s room to prove the 27.5″ rim is a groomed single track winter performer of choice, but a serious winter tire tread needs to come to the table first. • An IsoSpeed decoupler to reduce the rigid in the rear • Release the 9.9 with Di2 out of the box. Could be wonderful. • Orange is a nice color.

4 Responses to Trek Farley 9.8 — The Winter Review

Great review Aaron! Bill Fleming is currently racing the 9.8 on the ITI trail all the way to Nome.

just wondering……………the 26 & 27.5 OD would probably be similar but a 29+ OD is significantly larger. How would this be compensated?

How about a review on the 27.5 x 4.5 Barbegazi or Gnarwhal on the 2017 Farley. Could it be the goldilocks?

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Trek Farley EX 9.8: fat with full suspension

Carbon and more carbon for this 27.5in fatty

Russell Eich / Immediate Media

Russell Eich

Full-suspension and fat tires are still a pretty rare pairing. The argument is that the big, mondo tires rolling single digit air pressures provide all the suspension you need.

The flip side to that argument is that full suspension allows some control to the cushion, thanks to a fork and shock's damping qualities.

Trek's full-suspension Farley EX 9.8 fat bike adds another twist to the conundrum, 27.5-inch wheels.

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Trek Farley EX 9.8 highlights

• OCLV Mountain carbon frame, aluminum stays
• 120mm rear travel with ABP and Full Floater suspension
• Fox Float RE:aktiv rear shock
• RockShox Bluto RL, 120mm
• Bontrager Wampa Carbon 80 SL rims, tubeless ready
• 150x15 front, 197x12 rear hubs
• Bontrager Hodag 27.5x3.8in tires
• SRAM X01 rear derailleur, X1 shifter
• Race Face Next carbon cranks, 30T narrow/wide ring
• SRAM Guide hydraulic discs
• Weighs 14.06kg / 31lbs, size 19.5in

Dialed chassis

As you can see from the highlights list above, the Farley EX 9.8 is pretty dialed stock. The nearly all-black build with little red pops of color make it a very attractive bike in my eyes.

There's a country mile of standover thanks to the swoopy top tube and Trek's designers have done a commendable job at keeping the rear suspension tidy and flowing smoothly from the front end to the back.

With fat bikes looking like this, it's easy to say that the days of hobbled together mystery machines is over.

Blurring the lines

In addition to this being one of only a few full-sus fat bikes, the Farley EX is also in the rare camp of having 27.5-inch wheeled fattys.

Along with the bigger hoops there are slightly narrower tires, Bontrager's Hodags at 3.8-inches.

This makes me wonder if the Farley will feel more like a mountain bike with playful manners and less plodding.

It also leaves me questioning if the lack of footprint will leave it wanting when traction and floatation are paramount.

Trek Farley EX 9.8 pricing and availability

Trek makes two versions: the alloy Farley EX 8 model comes with a modest spec at $3,499, while the carbon 9.8 version, which I have in on test, retails for $5,499. They are available now from Trek dealers and at trekbikes.com.

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