In case you haven't been following it, Trek's 2019 & 2020 Checkpoints were advertised as having clearance for 45mm tires. Then . . . quietly . . . the website reduced the spec to 38mm . . . to 35mm . . . back to 38mm . . . then to 40mm IF you use a particular Bontrager tire. All of these spec changes came without any notice to existing owners. (Without measuring, it appears that the front derailleur may interfere with wide tires when the axle is adjusted on the forward end of its travel.) The only indication of any problem came for those who happened to look at the spec sheet on the website. This afternoon, there's been another change at Trekbikes.com!
I checked to see if there had been yet another tire clearance change for the Checkpoint on the Trekbikes.com website. And I found that . . . THE CHECKPOINT HAS BEEN TAKEN OFF THE SITE. When you do a search for gravel bikes, you get Crocket and Boone. No Checkpoints! When using the regular BIKES tab and GRAVEL or CHECKPOINT, nothing comes up for the Checkpoint. The CHECKPOINT tab is dead.
Trek Customer Service says there won't be a recall because the STOCK sized 35mm tires are safe. To this point, they're not offering any kind of remedy for those who purchased based on Trek's claimed 45mm tire width capacity. Has anyone had any luck getting relief for this issue? What are you hearing?
This is exactly why I eliminated the Checkpoint from consideration. The website would never give a definitive answer on tire capacity. I even went to my LBS, and they couldn't provide an answer.
The Checkpoint is back on Trek's website -- and back with the 38/40mm capacity IF you use a 40mm Bontrager tire and IF it provides 4mm of clearance. (Couldn't they just have said 60mm wide tires or 120mm wide tires IF it provides 4mm of clearance?) But I measured mine tonight. Between the centerline of the rear wheel and the side of a Di2 front derailleur is 20mm. In other words, with the wheelbase adjusted for racing (short), there's not enough clearance even for a 40mm wide tire. A 38mm would have room to turn -- unless it got muddy. I bought the bike based on the original promise of 45mm + mud room. I think the FRAME (without derailleur) probably provides that. But with a derailleur, this is just another endurance road bike. There's no room for serious rubber. If I had known this, I would never have bought the bike.
Have you tried to move the axle back a little using the 15mm of adjustable dropout? I understand that they haven't been clear on what tire will clear but with the strangleholds you've got some options if you want to run bigger tires. If the WB becomes 5mm or so longer in the process of getting the tire to fit so what.
Darkstar69 wrote:Have you tried to move the axle back a little using the 15mm of adjustable dropout? I understand that they haven't been clear on what tire will clear but with the strangleholds you've got some options if you want to run bigger tires. If the WB becomes 5mm or so longer in the process of getting the tire to fit so what.
You're correct that extending the wheelbase by 10mm or 15mm will help the issue. But then the bike feels sluggish. It eliminates the handling for which I bought the bike. This is my racing bike (or I bought it with that intention). If I wanted a comfort bike, there are a lot better and less expensive options. But I didn't buy this to be a comfort bike -- and I suspect most other people didn't buy it for that, either.
Wow this is a very relevant thread as I was going to look at one this weekend. So is the final verdict it only holds a larger tire if the dropout is pushed all the way back? That makes sense, just awfully shady of Trek to be so ambiguous.
To be clear ..... if the dropout is adjusted back, will a 45 fit on the rear?
If not, what is the largest that will fit on the rear with the dropout adjusted back?
Will a 45 fit on the front?
Going to have a hard time getting (forced or voluntary) relief from Trek if a 45 (or something really close to it) will fit somehow.
I certainly do understand the disappointment if buyer was banking on 45 and 40 is max....but is that the case?
These days you almost have to see it (unfortunately) to believe any clearance claim.....there is definitely a difference between what tire will "fit" and what tire will "fit and work"....meaning what can be jammed in and what will still be ride able with mud and/or a broken spoke ...... this is true regardless of tire clearance claim by any manufacturer....same as it ever was.
GHC wrote:To be clear ..... if the dropout is adjusted back, will a 45 fit on the rear?
If not, what is the largest that will fit on the rear with the dropout adjusted back?
Will a 45 fit on the front?
Going to have a hard time getting (forced or voluntary) relief from Trek if a 45 (or something really close to it) will fit somehow.
I certainly do understand the disappointment if buyer was banking on 45 and 40 is max....but is that the case?
These days you almost have to see it (unfortunately) to believe any clearance claim.....there is definitely a difference between what tire will "fit" and what tire will "fit and work"....meaning what can be jammed in and what will still be ride able with mud and/or a broken spoke ...... this is true regardless of tire clearance claim by any manufacturer....same as it ever was.
There is a review of the bike on the Trek website. The guy says he is running 700 x 47 tires, but he is running 1x so no front derailleur. So it looks like you can run 700 x 45 tires, but must be 1x and have the drop outs adjusted all the way back. So technically it does fit large tires, they just didn't really disclose what had to be done to fit them. I took the pic below from the review. You can see the tire is very close to the seat tube, so definitely no room for a front derailleur.
Thank you for this additional info. That looks like an awful lot of rubber for a 700c tire, I know Trek has noted this frame was not designed for 650b but it has that look to it. I could be wrong. There is some promise here, as the wheel is as far forward as possible. If the only way to fit a mid-40’s tire on there is smaller hoops and 1x, then Trek really needs to get their act together. Especially considering their last gravel offering was simply not not a Domane...
You're correct that extending the wheelbase by 10mm or 15mm will help the issue. But then the bike feels sluggish. It eliminates the handling for which I bought the bike. This is my racing bike (or I bought it with that intention). If I wanted a comfort bike, there are a lot better and less expensive options. But I didn't buy this to be a comfort bike -- and I suspect most other people didn't buy it for that, either.
Sure 15mm longer CS can change how the bike feels but it might only take 5 or so mm to get close to the clearance you need for a larger tire. I would argue that if a 5mm change in CS/WB length makes your "race bike" bike feel sluggish your really not going to like how sluggish a 45mm wide tire feels anyway.
You posted here asking for a remedy but it would seem you haven't yet tried with the currently suggested 40mm tire. I suggest you play the game and source a 40mm Bontrager tire and see what it takes to get it to clear and go from there. If you can get the 40 to clear in the shortest position I'd bet a 43 will clear with just a bit longer CS. Your local dealer would likely do this trial for you in their stand if you'd ask them to work with you solve a problem. If the 40mm tire doesn't fit without sliding back most of the dropout length THEN-yea your right this is a POS.
I have a checkpoint sl5 56cm frame purchased when they first came out a year ago in March 2018. I think it is a 2019 model.
I have the rear wheel fully forward for the shortest wheelbase and currently running wtb riddler 45c tires and have the stock shimano 105 2x front derailleur. I will post a picture at some point of my setup but I guess Trek must have changed the geometry since my frame was delivered, otherwise it is confusing why this would happen. I can't imagine they intentionally redesigned the frame for smaller tires...
email.gjm wrote: I have the rear wheel fully forward for the shortest wheelbase and currently running wtb riddler 45c tires and have the stock shimano 105 2x front derailleur.
No need to post a photo. Mine is a 2019, too, and Trek has said they didn't change anything on the 2020 bikes. I have no doubt that a 105 front derailleur will clear easily. (I have one on another bike.) On my Checkpoint, as mentioned above, I have an Ultegra Di2 front derailleur. It sticks straight back from the seat tube about 10mm or 12mm closer to the rear axle. Even a 40mm tire won't clear it. That might be why Trek originally reduced the claimed 45mm clearance to 35mm. I'm not sure a 38mm gravel tire would completely clear it. I don't know for sure, though. And Trek is not saying much.
I have a couple coworkers running 42's with fenders on their Checkpoints. They did have to slide the dropouts back to work with the fenders, but prior to the fender install they were running the dropout all the way forward. These are both ALR 5 models with the toggle style front der. which helps with tire clearance.
Volsung wrote:So the frame clears big tires but your front derailleur is the limiting factor? Why is your problem with Trek and not Shimano?
I am but a mere mortal and being forced to move my Warakin's dropout to the 430 position isnt what's holding me back from gravgrav greatness.
I think the issue in addition to wider tires not fitting with Di2 fd's is that Trek has clearly reduced the tire size spec on this bike. When I bought in March 2018 it was widely advertised as 45c and now it is clearly Bontrager 40c (which might be less for other tires).
I think the issue with Di2 could have be resolved by a disclaimer that Di2 wouldn't work with certain tires and rear axle positions. Otherwise a blanket reduction in the tire size spec does seem like Trek made a mistake at some level.
I have the original 2019 SL5 version and I have the supplied 35c Schwalbe tire, I have 15 mm clearance to the front derailleur. I would think this would easily fit a 40 or maybe a 45c tire. Like the last post said maybe this is a Di2 issue? The Canadian page still says 40c bontrager tire.
Tire sizing requires some critical thinking. You might be able to fit a 29x2 Furious Fred (really like 46mm) on a road rim but not a 29x2 on a 30mm internal rim.
Otso is really nice in that they made a compatibility chart for their Voytek and clarified sizing for dropout positions on their gravel bikes.
Campy front derailleurs have a long swing arm that can get in the way of some tires/fenders in some dropout positions on my bike, but I don't blame Otso and I just went 1x rather than deal with it all.
I'm not sure if this is a problem for anything but Di2. The closest point of interference, for me, is my Di2 front derailleur. Even a 40mm tire won't clear that derailleur. It sticks back a full inch from the seat tube. (Maybe that's why Trek's various specs on this bike have gone all the way down to 35mm tire width max.) My LBS has asked Trek what the problem is and they haven't given him any answers except to say that they will do something for those who bought the bike expecting clearance for 45mm tires plus mud. They say they will get back to him with what they're going to do. But it's already been a week . . .
Either way, my LBS is making it right for me -- trading out my Checkpoint frameset for a new frameset of my choice, and switching over the components for no charge. THAT, my friends, is great customer service. I offered to pay something, but he refused. Wow. With any luck, by the end of March, this won't be my problem anymore.
FlashBazbo wrote:I'm not sure if this is a problem for anything but Di2. The closest point of interference, for me, is my Di2 front derailleur. Even a 40mm tire won't clear that derailleur. It sticks back a full inch from the seat tube. (Maybe that's why Trek's various specs on this bike have gone all the way down to 35mm tire width max.) My LBS has asked Trek what the problem is and they haven't given him any answers except to say that they will do something for those who bought the bike expecting clearance for 45mm tires plus mud. They say they will get back to him with what they're going to do. But it's already been a week . . .
Either way, my LBS is making it right for me -- trading out my Checkpoint frameset for a new frameset of my choice, and switching over the components for no charge. THAT, my friends, is great customer service. I offered to pay something, but he refused. Wow. With any luck, by the end of March, this won't be my problem anymore.
That is good customer service, but I’m curious what you hope to accomplish. You were very concerned about chainstay length. What frame with 425mm chainstays and Di2 will fit 45mm tires better than the Trek? To get what you need you’ll probably end up on a bike with longer chainstays.
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