Key Takeaways
- The Trek FX Sport 6 is one of the highest performance hybrid bikes you can buy.
- The lightweight carbon frame and wheels make this faster than many road bikes.
- The upright flat bar riding position is more comfortable than aggressive drop bar road bikes.
- Features like hidden fender mounts make this bike versatile and ready for any type of riding.
- If you like going fast but don’t dig the roadie vibe, this bike gives performance without pretense.
There are limited options if you want a high-performance flat bar hybrid. This Trek FX Sport 6 review dives into the performance and specs of this fun bike.
The Trek FX Sport 6 is one of the lightest, fastest, and funest city bikes you can buy. The featherweight carbon frame, high-end components, and nimble handling make this a fantastic bike for serious fitness riders who prefer a flat handlebar setup.
I ride my bike to work every day and log thousands of miles each year. I love bikes that For this review I dug up all the details on the FX Sport 6 and compared it’s performance to other high-end fitness bikes so you can have all the information you need to decide whether to buy this bike.
Trek FX Sport 6 Performance
With this bike Trek promised to deliver the fastest fitness bike on the street, and the reality of this bike’s performance measures up pretty well. It is lightweight, fast, responsive, and fun.
It delivers a lot more than just speed though. The beauty of a bike like this is it’s ability to handle more than a road bike ever could. I’ve been surprised with the capability of the FX Sport 6 to handle gravel and flowy singletrack. It feels fun wherever you take it.
Pavement
On pavement, this bike feels nimble and fast. It’s easy to get in a rhythm and lay out the power on long rides. In town, the upright position keeps you aware of what’s going on around you, and the flat bars give you great control for zipping through traffic.
Gravel
When the pavement ends, the fun begins, as the saying goes. This is an awesome bike for exploring gravel back roads. The 40mm tires have small but functional knobs that give you grip when tarmac turns to dirt, and the gravel-specific drivetrain keeps your power where you want it when things get chattery.
Trails
This isn’t marketed as a mountain bike for singletrack riding, and that definitely isn’t it’s focus, but if you want one bike to do it all and have an itch to pedal your local trails, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the capability of the FX Sport 6.
Trek FX Sport 6 Frame and Geometry
The OCLV carbon frame on this bike is an incredible piece of engineering. This frame is stiff, durable, and incredibly lightweight. The entire weight for this bike comes in at a breezy 21 lbs. The steep seat tube angle puts you in a perfect position for cranking out the miles.
With flat mount disc brakes and thru axles, this frame is built to be reliable and future-proof so you can upgrade components at will. Though with the high-end build kit on this bike, it’s not likely you’ll feel the need to swap anything out.
Mounting points for bottle cages, fenders, and rear racks make the FX Sport 6 versatile and ready for anything. Whether you need water for long group rides, a rack for your bag while commuting, or fenders for wet-weather riding, this frame has you covered.
The rigid carbon fork is also very light and does a good job of muting road buzz.
Specs and Components
Coming in at $2,799, the FX Sport 6 is not a cheap hybrid bike, but you get some fantastic high-end components for your investment.
Flat handlebar shifters and brakes are significantly less expensive than drop bar components, so you get higher-end components on this bike than you would on a similarly-priced drop bar road bike.
Drivetrain
Rather than a traditional road bike groupset, the Trek FX Sport 6 comes with a gravel-oriented Shimano GRX 1x11 drivetrain. This high quality Shimano drivetrain gives you decent gear range and smooth shifting performance over a wide variety of conditions.
The GRX drivetrain has a lot of technology from Shimano’s mountain bike lineup like a clutched rear derailleur that minimizes chain slap and keeps your chain in place over rough roads. If you plan to ride on more than racetrack-smooth tarmac, this is a very welcome improvement.
With a 40-tooth chainring, you have plenty of high end for pedaling fast while still having descent gears for climbing steep hills
Brakes
The Shimano MT201 hydraulic disc brakes with 160mm front and rear rotors are a great addition to this bike. They offer plenty of stopping power and control so you can feel confident and safe on your ride.
Road bikes traditionally use rim brakes, though disc brakes are becoming the norm. It’s great to see Trek ahead of the curve on this as hydraulic disc brakes give much better performance and continue to work well in wet or dirty conditions.
Wheelset
The Bontrager carbon wheels on the Trek FX Sport 6 are awesomely light and make this bike feel responsive and quick while accelerating. It’s easy to overlook the performance benefits of lighter wheels, but you will notice it once you start pedaling this bike.
These wheels are also tubeless ready, which can let you drop even more weight and get a suppler ride feel with less rolling resistance. This is an awesome feature to have on a multi-purpose bike like this.
Tires
The Bontrager GR1 gravel tires on this bike come in a fantastic 40mm width. Recent research has found that wider tires actually have less rolling resistance than narrow ones, contrary to the long-held assumption that the thinnest tires possible made the fastest road bikes. Don’t worry about these tires slowing you down.
Wider tires like these also do a much better job of damping road vibration and keeping you comfortable. This means you’ll be able to ride longer and faster.
Competition for the Trek FX Sport 6
Trek FX Sport 6 vs Canyon Roadlite CF 9 LTD
Canyon builds some awesome bikes, and the Roadlite CF 9 LTD is no exception. This is one of the few bikes that really competes with the Trek FX Sport 6 in the high-performance hybrid bike category.
At 18 lbs, this bike feels like it’s not there. The mountain bike Sram X01 Eagle drive train gives you awesome range with it’s 10-50 12-speed cassette.
Performance-wise, the Roadlite definitely beats out the FX Sport 6, but it’s also more expensive at $3,249. The biggest downside is that with limited tire clearance, this bike definitely isn’t as all-terrain capable as the Trek.
Trek FX Sport 6 vs Specialized Sirrus 6.0
The Sirrus 6.0 is Specialized bike’s offering for the lightweight performance hybrid category. With a sleek carbon frame, a 2x11 road groupset, and a nimble, fast design, this bike is super fun for ripping around town or cruising roads and bike paths.
It’s got slim, slick road tires, so this is definitely a road-specific design. You’ve got more high-end speed than the Trek FX Sport 6, but you won’t be able to go as many places. If you want to stick to the road, the Sirrus is a great choice, but I love the go-anywhere ability of the FX Sport.
I love that the Sirrus 6.0 comes with bar ends standard. This is a feature that used to be common but has fallen out of popularity. I think handlebar ends are super functional and offer additional comfortable hand positions.
Trek FX Sport 6 vs Cannondale Quick Carbon 1
The Cannondale Quick Carbon 1 is about $1000 less than the FX Sport 6, so it’s not a direct competitor, but it’s definitely another option to look at if your on a more limited budget.
It has a more traditional road 2x11 drivetrain that gives you higher-end gearing, but this drivetrain could have some issues if you try to go on bumpy gravel or trails. It also has thinner, slick road tires that limit you to pavement.
The Quick Carbon 1 isn’t as light, fast, or capable, but if you want a similar bike that is fast for commuting or riding around town, this is a good pick that’ll save you some cash.
Who Should Buy the Trek FX Sport 6?
The cycling world is dominated by racing, which means bike company marketing pushes the narrative that race-oriented bikes are the only choice for serious recreational riders.
The Trek FX Sport 6 demolishes this narrative. In general, I love bikes that emphasize fun and functionality over race-worthiness. The FX Sport 6 does this without sacrificing speed or performance.
If you like riding fast for the fun of it rather than for the sake of competition, this bike is for you. If you like pushing your limits without needing to show off, this bike is for you. If you want a ride that makes no compromises on speed but also emphasizes comfort and practicality, this bike is for you.
That said, I do sometimes let my competitive nature come out, and there is no better feeling than passing a group of spandex-clad roadies while riding a wide-tired flat bar bike that’s splattered with mud and grinning from ear to ear. If that sounds fun, this bike is for you.
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