Trek Expands Its Gravel Offering With Updated Checkpoint and New Checkmate

Can introducing a new bike into the ‘gravel’ range make a bike that’s better suited to what people actually use them for? Trek reckons so. To do this, they’ve revamped the Checkpoint and created the Checkmate.

The rise of gravel bikes over the last five years or so has really divided the crowd. Are they a slow road bike paired with a very limited mountain bike, or do they perfectly service the niche of mostly offroad, non technical trails?

Trek want to take this debate one step further – their updated Checkpoint will be more relaxed to better suit bikepacking, while the new Checkmate is a race specific model with a spec list and price point that’ll have your savings grimacing.

Read more: What is a gravel bike?

A Jack Of All Trades?

If you don’t want to read our complete gravel bike explainer, basically a gravel bike fits somewhere between a traditional road bike and traditional mountain bike. Where exactly it sits depends on the model. Some are effectively road bikes with wider, knobbly tyres, while others have suspension, dropper posts, relaxed geometry (angles in the bike’s frame) and clearance for super wide mountain bike tyres.

Some people would describe gravel bikes as a jack of all trades, master of none. I’d describe them as the wrong bike for any job, but I don’t mean that in a bad way – that’s what makes them so much fun!

But it will get the job done in the end

Hear me out. When you’re on the tarmac, a gravel bike feels slow and cumbersome, but as soon as you’re off road on anything remotely bumpy, you’re begging for suspension – and don’t get me started on when things get technical.

So why are they fun? Because they’re the ‘why not’ bike. They give you no excuses to not give any trail a go. You don’t need to plan a gravel ride, you just get out there and head towards your nearest dirt roads. It also brings in an extra layer of skill. There’s no hiding behind 120mm of travel here!

Two More Focused Bikes

With the introduction of the Checkmate (great name by the way) and the updates to the Checkpoint, Trek have now gone from one bike in the middle of the spectrum, to two bikes closer to either end.

Both use Trek’s IsoSpeed comfort tech to smooth bumps. While this isn’t suspension, it allows the frame to flex in a way that makes it more comfortable, without wasting the energy you put through the pedals. But what makes them different?

Let’s pedal through some specs

The New Trek Checkpoint SL Gen 3

Quick Specs

Price range: $4,999.99 – $8,499.99 AUD
Weight range: 9.00 – 9.50 kg

The Trek Checkpoint is a well-established bike in the gravel world. Described on their website as being designed for gravel racing, bikepacking, and beyond, this bike sat almost exactly in the middle of the gravel bike range, capable of doing everything without being specifically designed for one application.

This new Checkpoint SL Gen 3 aims to change this, putting it more firmly in the adventure/bike packing side of the spectrum, kind of like the Focus Atlas 8.9 we reviewed recently. They’ve done this by relaxing up the geometry, increasing the storage capacity and rack mount options, increasing the tyre clearance, and making it more compatible with the optional additions of a dropper post and suspension fork.

The frame features 500 Series OCLV carbon across all the models, doing away with the 700 Series seen previously on the higher end models. The difference here is in the stiffness to weight ratio – to get the same stiffness as the previous model, the frame will be slightly heavier.

The new models are the Checkpoint SL 5, 6, & 7, the 5 is the base model while the 7 boasts some impressive specs. The tube shapes have been updated to fit taller bottles and increase storage in the frame. The internal storage in the downtube has also increased.

The frame is now higher and shorter, making it less twitchy and putting less weight through the front of the bike. This should make it feel more at home on technical trails and more comfortable for big days in the saddle.

Much easier to zip along single track

The handlebars have also been updated with the SL 5 & 6 coming with the alloy GR Elite bars and the SL7 the carbon GR Pro.

The bike comes with 42mmm tyres, but has impressive clearance for up to 50 mm. This should be plenty for most applications – if more is needed it’s possible a gravel bike really is the wrong bike for the job.

You won’t struggle for mounting options either. Bolts for a bottle cage under the down tube and three bolt holes on both sides of the fork leaving you plenty of options to add storage. There’s also extra bolts above the regular down tube bolt holes for a frame bag, on the top tube for more storage.

They weren’t kidding when they said this bike was made for bikepacking! While these bolt placements are designed for use with the in-house Trek bags, they’re pretty standard placements so I’d say they would work for most aftermarket bikepacking bags as well.

Read more: A Beginners Guide to Bikepacking Bags

All of the complete bikes come with a single front gear with an electronic Sram XPLR AXS derailleur. The top of the line model is equipped with Force, the mid range with Rival, and the base model with Apex. All of these do a similar job, the main difference between them is their weight. They all come with a 40T front chainring and either a 10 or 11 – 44T cassette, offering an impressive range of gears suitable for all trails. These groupsets are all 12 speed.

Wheels are courtesy of Bontrager – the two lower end models come stock with alloy wheels and the top of the line version has Bontrager Aeolus Elite 35V carbon wheels. All are tubeless compatible, allowing for puncture free riding once set up.

This bike is compatible with a dropper post and suspension fork if you’re keen to test the limits of a gravel bike, unless you’re a size XS, in which case there isn’t space to fit the fork. Sad face.

But, hypothetically, what if you never wanted to go bikepacking. You want to go fast, off road sometimes, maybe even do some gravel racing. To that Trek says, ‘checkmate’.

Trek Checkmate SLR

Quick Specs

Price range: $10,999.99 – $17,999.99 AUD
Weight range: 7.55 – 8.10 kg

The Trek Checkmate just looks fast. It was designed using the same Full System Foil aero tube shapes and one piece bar/stem as the new Madone Gen 8 (Trek’s latest road race bike which launched in the lead up to the Tour De France).

This is Trek’s lightest ever gravel bike, with 800 Series OCLV Carbon and many components straight from their road racing fleet. All these features do come at a cost though, with the base model retailing for nearly $11,000 AUD.

While this may be an all out racing bike, it’s still built for gravel, and has the same IsoSpeed comfort tech to smooth out the bumps in the road. The bars are flared with the hoods 3 cm narrower than the drops, allowing the rider to maintain an aerodynamic position or drop down for some more control when things get technical.

The Checkmate has room for 45mm tires although it comes stock with either 38s or 40s depending on the model.

Both models feature in-house components from Bontrager, although, as you might expect from a race bike at this price point, just about everything on both models is carbon.

Light, carbon frame means you’ll always be blurry in photos

The Checkmate SLR 7 comes with Sram Force XPLR AXS, with a 44T chainring up front and 10 – 44T cassette. While this is still a great range, it’s clearly more race focused with a bigger front ring and the 1:1 ratio at the rear not quite as friendly for super steep climbs.

The Checkmate SLR 9 ups the gears even more with a 46T up front and a 10 – 46T cassette, maintaining the same ratio but accounting for the speed at the front of a big gravel race. This one definitely isn’t as beginner friendly, but at nearly $18,000, it really shouldn’t be.

Has creating a new gravel bike made it easier to choose?

Cynics will say that Trek adding an additional bike to their gravel range is an effort to sell more bikes, but I think it makes sense.

For the vast majority of people, the updated Checkpoint is now better suited to their needs. It’ll be more comfortable, more capable, and is actually built to do what most people do on their gravel bikes – adventure. It’s also still more than capable of racing, that’s just not the primary design focus. In short, it will be more fun.

While the Checkmate is far too specialised for the majority of people, I won’t blame anyone for eyeing it off. It’s lighter, faster on most terrain and will have your mates drooling at the cafe. And if you’re a serious racer, this is a pretty epic rig that should definitely be up there on your list of potential upgrades – if you’ve got the cash to splash.

Photos supplied by Trek