Is the Trek Supercaliber Gen 2 a good bike for bikepacking?

Is the Supercaliber a good bike for bikepacking? You’ve asked me this question a lot, but I hesitated a bit before writing this review. I don’t see myself as an experienced bike reviewer and I’m not great at using words like “stiffness” and “handling.” Still, I decided to push past those shortcomings and simply describe my real-world experience — as I feel it. Over the last year I’ve put roughly 17,000 km on the Supercaliber Gen 2. I don’t ride extreme descents on it and I definitely don’t use it at the edge of its capabilities. For me it’s a race-oriented bikepacking tool for long days in the saddle on rough surfaces.

I won’t describe the stock component spec, because I replaced basically everything anyway. So this is mainly a review of the frame.

🚲 Basic facts

The Trek Supercaliber Gen 2 is a carbon full-suspension bike with 80 mm of travel, designed for fast XC and marathon racing. It’s meant to be light, efficient, and at the same time a bit more comfortable than a classic hardtail. It doesn’t use a traditionally positioned rear shock; instead it comes with the IsoStrut system, which promises more space inside the front triangle — enough for up to two bottles.

When I wanted to upgrade from the Procaliber, it was the logical choice. The Procaliber is a great hardtail and I didn’t really believe anything else could be better. I wanted to try something different, so I went with the Supercaliber. My expectations were:

• more comfort
• better efficiency on rough surfaces
• still enough room in the frame

🧪 Bikepacking experience

🛋️ Comfort

The main thing I expected from the rear suspension was more comfort. I wasn’t looking for comfort in steep technical descents — there usually aren’t that many of those in bikepacking anyway. The biggest source of vibration and fatigue is the usual mess: uneven farm roads, holes, rocks, and broken surfaces.

And this worked for me. In Morocco at the Atlas Mountain Race I genuinely enjoyed it: rocky roads weren’t technically difficult, but they were “fatiguing.” And there the Supercaliber felt more efficient and faster. I could easily pass other riders.

On a hardtail it used to happen that a bigger hole would kick me out of the saddle. On the Supercaliber I stay seated and just roll over the obstacle.

For me, the rear shock wasn’t a ticket into harder terrain — as in, riding things I couldn’t ride before. I don’t ride those things mostly because of my head, not because of what I’m riding. Thanks to the Supercaliber, my overall ride comfort definitely improved.

🛞 Climbing traction and efficiency

The second thing I noticed is much better grip on climbs, especially in more technical sections. I climb better and in places where on the Procaliber I would spin out more and struggle to stay seated. It might seem like on bikepacking trips it’s not worth riding technical climbs and it’s better to hike them. But often it’s simply easier to bite down and ride something up than to mess around pushing the bike on foot.

I don’t know if it was like this from the factory, but even when locked out the bike doesn’t feel like a true hardtail. I notice it mainly during intervals on pavement: when I push hard, the bike still bobs. In a bikepacking race I don’t care about this at all. I often don’t lock out either the shock or the fork, because I’m going slow enough that it barely matters.

Otherwise I can’t complain about the shock at all. I often heard opinions like “don’t take rear suspension for bikepacking, it’s another thing that can break.” But then you also couldn’t take a suspension fork… And it seems to me the shock sits outside the main mud spray and is well shielded from the main sources of grime. I usually get far more buildup on the fork.

🎒 Space for bikepacking bags

On the Procaliber I was able to carry two 1-liter bottles. On the Supercaliber (size M/L) I can fit:

• 1 liter
• plus 0.5 liter

And honestly it annoys me that I can’t fit at least a 0.7 l bottle. In bikepacking, water is the foundation, and this means I have to think more about where to carry water outside the frame. In general, MTB frames don’t offer much room inside the front triangle, and the Supercaliber is no exception. The shock itself doesn’t take up that much space, but:

• Mounting a long top tube bag is more complicated — the top tube isn’t perfectly straight
• If I want to strap something over the shock, it obviously affects how it works
• Also because of the shock placement, there’s simply less room in the frame triangle overall

A seat pack wasn’t a problem (I used relatively small ones, max about 13 liters, and it was OK), but “space inside the frame” is a weakness of any full-suspension bike. I did manage to squeeze in a frame bag — though a small one — but the attachment definitely limited the shock’s function.

🤏 Small annoyances

What annoys me a bit is how many cables I have on the Supercaliber. On the Procaliber I only had brake hoses — the fork lockout was right on the fork leg. Nothing rubbed. On the Supercaliber, besides the brakes, I also have the shifter cable and two lockout cables. The cable ports on the frame aren’t well designed, and when a bag presses on the housing it’s very easy for it to rub the frame.

The rear axle has a magnetic lever for removal. I’d prefer not to carry it because I carry a multi-tool, but:

• I have a multi-tool with removable bits
• and those bits keep sticking to the magnet

So in the end I carry the lever anyway.

🏗️ Converting from a Procaliber to a Supercaliber

The Supercaliber is a very expensive bike and it felt unnecessary to pay extra for components. So I bought the lowest-spec Supercaliber model and swapped over the components from my Procaliber that I had already dialed in for bikepacking.

The biggest problem was a different chainline. I don’t want to turn this into an engineering article, but the point is:

• I wanted to use my old cranks, but the Supercaliber uses a wider standard
• I kept the same cranks, but solved it with a zero-offset chainring

It works — and I also have a lower Q-factor 😉

🤑 Is the upgrade worth the money?

The difference in comfort is noticeable, but it’s not like it’s a completely different world.

If I look at price vs. benefit:

• upgrading from a no-name bike to the Procaliber was huge,
• upgrading from the Procaliber to the Supercaliber is already “expensive comfort,” and the leap isn’t as dramatic.

For my use case — race-oriented bikepacking — I’d probably buy it again (if I had enough money). But if I only rode weekend trips for fun and didn’t care about speed, I think the Procaliber is more than enough. A lot of comfort comes from tires and pressures anyway.

📐 Conclusion – is it a good bike for bikepacking?

For race bikepacking: yes. The comfort and efficiency on rough surfaces are clearly noticeable for me. The rear shock helps me mainly in situations where on a hardtail I had to get out of the saddle, and over long days in the dirt it adds up.

For “classic” bikepacking for fun, it’s more about whether you accept the compromises. A full-suspension bike reduces space in the frame, makes carrying water harder and complicates bags. If you don’t care about performance and speed, a hardtail (like the Procaliber) will probably make your life simpler. For casual riding, I’d take that.