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Trek’s new Session 88 unveiled at Sea Otter

The big news from Sea Otter today is that Trek has finally finished development of their new long-travel frame, the Session 88. The new frame will spawn a duo of gravity oriented rides: a downhill race ready DH model, and a freeride friendly FR model.

Both of the builds are centered around the new 8″ travel frame, which Trek has applied their latest trickery to. The key feature is that the Session 88 gets treated to the ABP (Active Braking Pivot), which has already been seen on Trek’s Remedy. The ABP is a pivot which is concentric to the rear axle, which helps to uncouple braking forces from the suspension. The technology has been proven to be effective at increasing rear-end traction under braking on the Remedy, and the benefits should be even more noticeable on the longer travel Session 88.

The Session 88 is also using Trek’s Full Floater technique of mounting the shock to an extension of the chainstay instead of to the main frame. This, combined with a custom valved Fox DHX shock, are said to contribute to improved small-bump sensitivity.

Up front, the Session 88 is jumping on the tapered head tube bandwagon, with an oversized 1.5″ bottom diameter steer tube slimming down to a conventional 1 1/8″ up top. This setup is supposed to give all the stiffness of a 1.5″ headtube, while trimming some weight and leaving you free to choose from a broader selection of stems.

Spec levels are top-notch on both the FR and DH versions. Price levels haven’t been officially announced, but expect a retail price of around six grand.

Check out the post at NSMB for plenty of live shots of the Session 88.

© 2008 Two Six Nation.