Submitted by
Denry2707
a Downhiller
from Denver, CO, USA
Date Reviewed: May 4, 2010
Strengths: Amazingly strong and resilient frame! I could practically jump this thing off of anything from almost any(liveable)height and not be too worried about it.
Weaknesses: Very heavy bike for some of those 'uphills' you'll encounter and want to ride up quickly. But it is a 'downhill' bike and built for speed, strength, and air, so get over it and enjoy this amazing bike!
Bottom Line:
It's a great intermediate bike and is made exactly for what it does! There's better bikes out there of course, but especially if you can find a great deal on one of these bikes and love to downhill, then this is a great buy and you won't be disappointed
Submitted by
session77owner
a Downhiller
from Fruita, Colorado, USA
Date Reviewed: February 22, 2010
Strengths: its a tank! i can huck just about anything and feel confident on just about anything. It boosts out of corners really quickly as well. ITS GOLD!!
Similar Products Used: kona stinky, kona coiler, cannondale perp, Gary Fisher King fisher... etc most other 7" travel bikes
Bike Setup: I kept the Hays brakes on it but switched the derailer to the sram short arm x-0.
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Submitted by
141 master
a Downhiller
from Ashland,Oregon
Date Reviewed: March 29, 2009
Strengths: Great frame, looks, feel, strong
Weaknesses: I like my seat low and the rear brackets dont allow me to put it too low because they will hit each other. other than that it is awesome. weight should not be an issue cause you should be going downhill.
Bottom Line:
I am getting rid of the rear shock for lack of a lock-out but the frame itself is strong and durable. I am 6 foot and a small runs a little bigger than usual so it is really easy to jump and whip around. I would recommend buying one if a good deal comes around like the one i got. However, there are better bikes out there.
Bike Setup: Trek with manitou stance, manitou 4-way swinger, azonic wheel sets, hayes nine
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Submitted by
sam
a Weekend Warrior
from South Australia
Date Reviewed: February 22, 2008
Strengths: strength, good build, good quality welding. Great skill building bike, its got me developing my mtb skills and inspiring confidance. even race DH and it seemed to perform pretty well. Great peddling very little feedback.
Weaknesses: seat clamp has scrached the shock rocker has to be aligned properly, crank arm has come off, seemed to unwind itself but no damage nothing lock tight cant fix. Issues with warrenty due to a falt in the rear hub, some things not returned and went missing got snubed by the lbs in Adelaide, but hay thats people troubles not bike troubles, the falt was due to over heating of alloys no probs since it has been replaced.
Bottom Line:
Sweet bike to get inspired on and push your mtb to that next lvl. rides really well over rough stuff. handles jumping well and is indestructable, perfect for bigger riders who are tough on there gear. components have held up well, and have caused very little stress. in short a awsome bike and so far after 16mths of riding its held its own well especially on the rock rough tracks around Alice Springs :) This is the bike for freeriders who are thinking in dabling in the occational DH race but it is expensive so be sure its for you before you spend your hard erned cash, for me it has been worth every penny.
Strengths: I purchased this bike as a Demo at TREK San Diego. This bike is one of the best handling bikes I have ever ridden for freeriding. The frame is very well built, the welds are clean, straight and smooth. Bike handles the drops and jumps easily. This bike rails on the turns and has just a little understeer. The bike is well spec'ed with excellent components that are made to last.
Weaknesses: As said before the bike does weight on the heavy side and the seatpost clamp does hit the upper rocker arms if you do not close or center it correctly. I have the 15inch frame and if you lower the seat too low the seat rails hit the upper rocker arms during full suspension compression. I also have this annoying Bottom Bracket creak when climbing. I have brought it back to TREK for service 2 times, but they still have not corrected the problem. Other than that I am totally satisfied with the Session 77.
Bottom Line:
I would recommend this bike to anyone who wants a solid Freeride bike with a lifetime frame warranty. The bike comes spec'ed with high end parts and excellent workmanship. The only complaint I have is the "Unsatifactory Sales Service" I received from TREK's Kearny Mesa location in San Diego. I got the run around and also had to personally pick up my bike at another TREK location. I also still have that pesky Bottom Bracket creak, but TREK's Service guys are top notch. I am sure they will figure out the problem.
Similar Products Used: stinky, coiler, coil-air, diablos, haro extreme
Bike Setup: nothing is stock except the frame, wheels, and rear shock. 888RC, king earl post, XT drivetrain, race face cranks/external cup bb/ BB7 dh's
Strengths: Strong, manouverable and strong again. Feels very comfortable when riding that 3 mile journey to the trails with the seat up.
Weaknesses: Very, very heavy which is a shame for something which handles general trail riding much better than a DH specific frame. Manitou travis forks have rubbish rebound. Watch the seat clamp, I switched to an allen key one to stop it knocking on the linkage bars.
Bottom Line:
I love this bike but just wish it was a little lighter. i took it to the Forest of Dean and swapped with a session 10 for one run. The session 10 felt so much easier to handle on the steep rocky, off camber stuff because thats what its designed for. But getting back on my 77 felt like riding a really heavy and fairly clumsy trail bike.
If you're buying this bike to do mainly massive drop offs, huge doubles and nice swooping trails with a bit of pedaling then its definitely the one. But I wouldn't get it for technical DH stuff as the geometry is more like an xc bike than a DH spec. (My DMR trailstar has a steeper head tube angle than the 77).
I'm selling mine, not because I don't like it but because I don't get enough use out of it.
Maybe I'll regret my decision if I ever move to Napa Valley!!
Strengths: the bike is quite balanced in the air, Once you got everything dialed. It also rides on amazing wheels, awesome hubs and rims. Its also a real head turner. overal all joy
Weaknesses: suspension is quite soft, and the hayes mags need lots of maitenence on high speed trails. The travis is very soft and the compression adjustibility doesnt seem to work.
Bottom Line:
coming off a hard tail to this bike was an expierience, the four bar linkage was something that I thought felt really different, but seeing as an sx trail was too frail for what I wanted, big hit was to husky and didn't have a single crown and a demo 7 didn't exist yet and don't get same bang for buck. I decided to try it out. Now the 4 bar feels like heaven and except for soft suspension ( better for resorts such as silver star) I could easily see myself comfortable over virtually any style of riding. With a Totem, and juicies, and 2.5 tires I would say it is perfect.
Strengths: Very good bike. It felt more at home in the flowy riding with hits rather than the DH racing style. Rides like a slopestyle bike (because it is). Good spec's, X-0, King Earl etc... The Frame has an option for different BB heights and head tube angles which is nice.
Weaknesses: The bearings in the main pivot were worn after a month or two, had to get the Trek boys to lock-tight them for me to repair the problem. In any rough and tough technical riding where your bouncing around at all the chain flys off, so get a chainguide. I threw a truvativ shiftguide on and didn't have any problems after wards. The stock pedals slipped quite often. The bontragers which come on it have very short pins, so I swapped for some pedals with longer pins.
Bottom Line:
Really fun ride which feels at home in the air. Take it if your riding a more slopestyle set of trails. If your not, I might suggest going with something more DH specific. I sold it after one summer of riding, not because it wasn't good, but I found it didn't really fit my riding style as I hoped for. Good frame/parts for the money, but there are alot of options in that 4000-4500 MSRP range, so check your options out.
Submitted by
Big-A
a Downhiller
from Douglassville PA
Date Reviewed: June 28, 2007
Strengths: Bullit Proof, im 230lbs and this thing can take it all, it opened up a whole new world of freeriding and Downhilling i never thought i could do! Pedals like a XC bikes, rips like a dirt bike!
Weaknesses: None
Bottom Line:
This bike is worth every cent, its fairly light, can be thrown around like a 10 cent hooker, jumps like a bmx bike, drops like a tank, handles awesome and caries speed like no other bike!
Check out Bike-Line, those guys rock, thanks eric for putting up with my sh*t!
Submitted by
Michael Lopez
a Downhiller
from El Centro CA, USA
Date Reviewed: April 9, 2007
Strengths: Completely sick! Rediculously overbuilt, adjustable droppouts, Oversized bearings, great set-up. Very pedalable for such a big bike...
Weaknesses: Its a bit heavy for what it is... hardly a weakness...possibly an advantage. Should have came with 150mm spacing and a 12mm thru-axle set-up instead of its measly 135mm spacing with 10mm thru-axle/ 9mm QR set-up. Due to this, It can handle moderate downhill fairly decently, but its Freeride at best.
Bottom Line:
I am rating this bike by the bike frame only.. Because a bike shouldn't be limited to a subtle rating due to its line-up of components; aspecially if Trek isn't building them right to begin with... The frame makes the bike; remember that before you post any rating.
The frame is great; it has so much potential. Adjustable droppouts, the bigest Damm bearings I've ever seen from any frame, and nice four bar linkage that reacts to bumps fairly nicely as opposed to single pivot designs.
I Don't exactly agree with the rear spacing, and the fact that it takes a 10mm TA/9mm QR but I guess its an advantage in some ways. takes drops very nicely.. you have to take a 16mm socket to that 4-way and crank it down all the way so it doesn't bottem out so easily... and in a way, makes it more pedal efficiant at the same time. I Speced it to my standards, and I love it.. it is perfect for freeride! I even loaded it down with some pretty heavy stuff, and its still more manuverable then some of my lighter bikes. which is great when your trying to gain speed and huck off some $#!T. It failed to shine in the DH area at first... putting the Shiver DC helped it out greatly.... that should be a standard on stock Sessions off the line. Road the demmo, it sucked.. probably would have replaced everything on it... but I built mine up my way so I am Happy... truly a great bike.
Similar Products Used: Jamis Diablo, Azonic Eliminator, Giant DH Team, Specialized Big Hit, quite a few others.
Bike Setup: 2003 Marzocchi Shiver DC 190mm travel, manitou Swinger 4-Way, Hayes HFX with Saint hubs, rotors,and derailure, Sun Rinolite rims, Michelin DH Comp 32 front2.8, Kenda Navegal 2.5 Rear,FSA Gravity Bars and crank, bla bla bla...
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Submitted by
Myke
a Downhiller
from Simsbury, CT, USA
Date Reviewed: February 26, 2007
Strengths: confidence inspiring bike. beefy and bombproof. super comfortable geometry and can handle anything you throw at it, can take a serious beating. strong paintjob and frame so no easy scratches or dents.
Weaknesses: weight, but if you complain about that, shouldnt be riding freeride/downhill. otherwise none.
Bottom Line:
Sick bike, highly recommend. all i bought was the frame hence the cheap price. gonna last me some time, true bomber
