Jim’s Tech Talk
By Jim Langley
There’s been so much interest in my new gravel bike, a 2023 Trek Checkpoint SL 5 which I reviewed earlier this month, that I wanted to give you more of the story this week – plus some observations and thoughts now that I’ve got some real rides on it. If you missed the review, here’s a link: https://www.roadbikerider.com/new-trek-checkpoint-sl-5/.
Some readers got the idea that I was a gravel newbie. So I wanted to explain that while this is my first modern “gravel” bike, it’s definitely not my first bicycle that can do what this Checkpoint can, and that riding gravel and dirt terrain on a near-road bike isn’t new to me either.
Two Videos
So what I did is make two new videos to tell the whole story of my first “gravel” bike and this new Trek. The first bike, a custom, made for me to my spec by Bonny Doon, California framesmith Jim Oxford is unique and the bike also features some of Keith Bontrager’s early innovations. I think you’ll like it. And, in the video about my SL 5, there are some clips of it in action for an idea of what it’s like to ride.
My Trek Checkpoint SL 5 Video
My Old Gravel Bike Video
TrekFest 3/1 to 4/2
I also wanted to pass on – in case you’re interested in a Trek Checkpoint for yourself, that Trek just announced their TrekFest sale. It runs from March 1 to April 2. I don’t work for Trek or have any more details about the sale. But it might be worth checking their website trekbikes.com and/or your local Trek dealer to see if you can save on that new G bike or whatever model you’ve got your eye on.
6 Observations So Far on My Trek Checkpoint SL 5 and One on Gravel Bike Riding in General
1. Favorite Feature
The best thing about riding this gravel bike so far is the ability to hop off the pavement and easily and safely ride on the shoulder when necessary. For example, if an oversize vehicle is passing and the road’s too narrow, escaping to the shoulder is a wonderful option that eliminates any risk. Plus, there’s some pavement that’s so rough that you’ll find riding on the dirt shoulder is smoother, faster and way more fun. Yes, you could probably ride it on your road bike, too, but with gravel tires you’ve got the right rubber and no control or flat worries.
2. Onboard Storage
The SL 5 has a storage compartment in the down tube. I’ve seen this on some Specialized brand bikes too. The compartment looks large inside and a Bontrager stuff bag comes with the bike. It has pockets for a CO2 pump and spare tube. I didn’t have a CO2 pump with me on my RV trip but I did have a tiny frame pump only 6.5 inches long. I tried to put this and a spare butyl tube inside the bag and into the storage compartment and it didn’t fit. I took the pump out and the tube fit fine. My Trek dealer recommended using a TPU spare tube, such as the ones by Tubolito or Schwalbe, which are much smaller than butyl tubes. Here’s my review of the Schwalbes. I may do that and I might experiment with either modifying the Bontrager bag or making my own to see if I can get more tools inside the compartment.
3. Shifting Comparison
Because I have bikes equipped with Shimano Di2 electric shifting I can compare my gravel bike’s cable-shifting Shimano GRX drivetrain to it. The biggest difference is that front shifting with a cable derailleur requires pushing the shift lever a long way. I measured the lever throw at the tip to be about 4 inches versus the immediate click of the Di2’s button. If you’re used to the super quick front shifts of Di2 you might want to pay more and get a gravel bike with Di2. I don’t find that the rear shifting is that different between cable and Di2.
4. Chain Keeper
Trek equips the SL 5 with a chain keeper, a small device that prevents the chain from falling off the small chainring. It’s become a common feature on lots of bikes, even road racers because as cassettes have gotten more and more cogs, the chain angle has increased a lot, which can cause chain drops. Chain keepers ensure it doesn’t happen and they work well. But, it’s good to know that if you do happen to drop the chain as I did crashing, that the keeper also makes it more difficult to get the chain back on.
Without a chain keeper you can pedal the chain back on or lift it back on. But the chain keeper will keep the chain from going back on if you try to pedal it back on. So instead you have to create chain slack (push the rear derailleur pulley cage toward the front of the bike), and try to lift the chain or backpedal to get the chain back on. It’s not that big a deal but it’s not easy like putting a dropped chain on without a chain keeper.
5. Discs
Disc brakes are ultra powerful and usually reliable regardless of where and how you ride. I’ve had them on my mountain bikes since they first came out. So I was more than a little surprised to bend a rotor on one of my first gravel rides. It caused the brake to drag until I got back to the RV and could straighten it with Park Tool’s Rotor Truing Fork tool (https://amzn.to/3ZtjjUm). This got me thinking about my old gravel bike with rim brakes. On that bike if I bent a wheel causing the brake to drag, it would be a simple matter to open the brake so it didn’t drag. That would be a nice feature for disc brakes to have someday.
6. Wheels
So far I haven’t had any issues with the Bontrager Paradigm wheels, but a reader named “Agustin” commented that on his Trek Domane with Paradigm wheels he started breaking spokes and on brevets (long important rides), never a good thing. I looked more closely at my Paradigm wheels and from the “S” stamped on the spoke heads, a quick search suggests that these are Taiwanese spokes made by Shuhn Lih Enterprise Co., Ltd. That’s not a spoke I have ever built with so only time will tell if I break them, too. If I do, I will rebuild the wheels with DT Swiss spokes, which I trust. And, I will have to take back what I said about the wheels being reliable. (There are actually only a few spoke brands that you can trust, Sapim is another one.)
Jim Langley is RBR’s Technical Editor. He has been a pro mechanic and cycling writer for more than 40 years. He’s the author of Your Home Bicycle Workshop in the RBR eBookstore. Check out his “cycling aficionado” website at http://www.jimlangley.net, his Q&A blog and updates at Twitter. Jim’s cycling streak ended in February 2022 with a total of 10,269 consecutive daily rides (28 years, 1 month and 11 days of never missing a ride). Click to read Jim’s full bio.
I picked my SL5 this January. I find it’s very road worthy and fast. I’m in West Michigan and our mild winter has allowed me to ride off trainer a bunch. The trails in early Spring and late Fall can be messy. This Checkpoint, as compared to my former ALR4 Checkpoint, is a great leap forward. The SL5 is an amazing upgrade. Thanks for you videos. Educational and highly relateable.
That’s great to hear you’re enjoying your SL 5 so much, Kim. I’ve only ridden a little bit in Michigan and I loved every minute – beautiful place you’ve got there! I’m very happy you found my videos helpful, thanks for the kind words and have fun on that sweet bike!
Jim
Jim,
You wrote that you bent a brake rotor on one of your first gravel rides.. Did this happen with your new Trek? How did you happen to bend it? Are these disc brake rotors that filmsy?
Hi Karl,
Yes, I bent the rotor on my new Trek SL 5 on my first “real” gravel ride. I didn’t see what happened, I only heard the sound. I am pretty sure the rotor must have hit a rock or a rock kicked up and struck the rotor. Either way it warped the rotor enough so that I knew right away the rear brake was dragging. Disc brake rotors are right there on the hub pretty close the ground and they’re exposed to whatever’s down there. In the Arizona desert on the Jeep trails that means lots of sizable rocks. The SL 5 has Shimano disc brakes and rotors which consistently get the best reviews in cycling so I can’t blame the rotors. And when you straighten a bent rotor like I did and have on many bikes, you feel how stiff and strong they are.
There is a way to reduce the risk to rotors, which is to go with smaller rotors instead of larger ones. The trend is to run larger for more braking power. I’m not sure that’s necessary. Had my Trek Checkpoint come with 14omm rotors instead of the 160mm rotors, I think the rotor might not have bent from the impact. And I bet the bike would still stop fine because another gravel bike I built with 140mm rotors stopped perfectly fine.
Hope this is helpful and thanks for asking,
Jim
I talked to a local Trek store to pre-order a Checkpoint SL 5 the day before their big sale started. Unfortunately, it’s not one of the bikes on sale. However, he immediately offered me a couple hundred bucks off sticker price just for asking. So ask — if you’re buying a Trek this month.
Thanks for sharing this John, great to hear!
Jim
It doesn’t look like any of the Checkpoints are on sale.
When I went to the Trek site to look at all the Checkpoint models, I got a 404 error.
Oops! We bonked.
The page you requested could not be found. Let’s grab a coffee and head back home.
404 page not found
Oh well try again later.
Eric see John Marsh’s comment just above yours re getting some $ knocked off your Checkpoint. And here’s the link to the webpage on it on Trek’s website:
https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/road-bikes/gravel-bikes/checkpoint/checkpoint-sl-5/p/35169/?colorCode=grey_greydark
Thanks for the comment!
Jim
Riding the shoulder around here, Idaho, is almost a guaranteed flat with goatheads or debris.
I have now ridden about 200 miles on shoulders here but mostly in Arizona where there are goatheads and I haven’t had any flats, David. My SL 5 came with 40mm wide tubeless tires with sealant inside. I think it’s equipped that way from Trek or setup at the shop that way. A goathead could definitely puncture the tire but the sealant would seal any holes and prevent the tire going flat or even losing much pressure. Same thing for small glass cuts, staples, nails and so on. That’s one of the reason gravel bikes are becoming so popular. The fatter tires resist punctures way better than skinnier ones.
Thanks for the comment!
Jim
Is the SL5 a good bike to add 35lbs for touring? Any other suggestions for this purpose?
Hi David!
Yes you could easily carry 35 pounds on the bike by adding frame bags to it and/or adding a rack and panniers. The bike has a multitude of mounts all over it as shown in my video. And there are gravel bike frame bag makers (just search on gravel bike bags) who offer lots of different bags to mount on the bike if you don’t want to have a rack and panniers, which can feel bulky and increase wind drag. That’s why “bikepackers” usually choose gravel bikes like this and they put on a frame bag, a handlebar bag and a seat bag as the basic larger bags to carry their gear. This way it’s all tucked in, close at hand for easy access and apart from the added weight it doesn’t feel a lot slower because the stuff you’re carrying is not out in the wind. The tucked-in bags also mean that you can ride even singletrack trails or even where there are no trails and you won’t have to worry about your packs sticking out and snagging on things. Plus, the bags are all pretty fast and easy to remove for when you want to ride without gear.
Thanks for the comment and I hope this helps,
Jim
Thanks, Jim. So, the frame feels pretty solid? That’s the difference I notice in ‘made for touring’ bikes like the Surly Long Haul and the Gunnar Grand Tour. The bike feels stable even at higher downhill speed.
Yes, definitely, Dave. But, how bikes feel is subjective too. You could ride totally different than I do. You could be much stronger or significantly lighter, etc. (I’m about 160 pounds suited up and ready to ride.) So, I would recommend not buying a Checkpoint until you take one on a good test ride to see how it feels to you.
I didn’t buy my SL 5 without researching it and it was highly recommended by two friends who ride a lot. I then test rode the aluminum version and then the SL 5 back to back and I thought both bikes rode great but that the carbon bike was the clear winner. To me the frame feels very solid and stable descending at speed. Coming down Mt. Lemmon I would estimate speeds around 40-45mph and the bike was steady as she goes.
But you should test ride one for yourself and see what you think. Hope this helps,
Jim
I can’t edit my previous reply, Dave, so I want to add some more. The Surly Long Haul Trucker is what I would consider a standard “touring” bike made for racks and panniers. As far as I know it’s a steel frame bicycle, at least it always has been since I’ve known about it and it’s been around for years and years.
The Trek Checkpoint SL 5 is definitely a gravel bike. This is a different animal than a touring bike. The biggest difference is that one was designed for touring carrying the cargo on racks and bags and mostly riding on the road. And the Trek is made for all types of gravel riding and road riding but it’s targeted for performance on both surfaces, too. So, that means it’s lighter and quicker handling than a true touring bike like the Surly LHT.
My point is that it’s comparing oranges to apples. I still think you should ride the Trek and see but if you like the feel of a classic steel touring bicycle and using racks and panniers and mostly tour on the road, the Long Haul Trucker and bikes like it might be the winner for you.
Hope this helps you,
Jim
Thanks, Jim.
My SL5 (61cm) is older, it came with Shimano 105, no downtube storage or headtube decoupler, which I have no complaints. I do have access to the downtube for storage but it requires a hex key wrench. I did recently upgrade the wheels to a deeper wider Bontrager carbon set and use the stock wheels for spares on the SL5 and my wife’s FX4 Carbon.
The stock wheels took a real beating for a couple thousand miles of dirt roads and mountain bike trails with zero issues. The carbon wheels are close to a thousand miles with zero issues as well and I am an aggressive 200 pound rider/racer.
The bike is super comfortable and the only item I wasn’t fond of were the stock tires. I’ve been using Bontrager tires for years but I just didn’t feel comfortable cornering at speed on pavement. Otherwise my less aggressive wife has been wearing them out with no issues. I replaced them with Goodyears with the Trek tubeless set-up.
My gravel travels over the decades have been on road bikes with 28c training tires and a Trek X01. Then a decade ago or so I bought a Lemond Poprad disc (manufactured by Trek) followed by a Trek Boone CX with cantilever brakes. The cantilever brakes sucked compared the Avid BB7 setup on the Lemond, but the hydraulic disc brakes of the Checkpoint make all the previous bikes fail in comparison.
We currently have 19 bikes, so I can confidently say, I can recommend this bike. I highly doubt I will replace the SL5 any time soon, unless I break it and if I do, it will be with another Checkpoint.