2025 Trek Rail+ First Look – A More Capable, Powerful, and Playful E-MTB?

The Trek Rail is Trek’s workhorse e-bike. With the 4th generation of the Rail featuring a 29” platform with the full-powered Bosch CX motor and 160/150mm travel, performing pretty well in a range of applications, but wasn’t really a standout performer in any one. This all changes with the launch of the new Trek Rail+, which has been redesigned to ensure you can ride for longer on more technical trails more comfortably.

The New Trek Rail+

Key changes to the Rail+ include the new Bosch CX generation 5 motor paired with a 800Wh battery, a mullet setup across all sizes (excluding small, which runs 27.5”), increased to 160mm travel front/rear and an updated RIB 2.0 battery latch system.

All of this combined makes for a very new silhouette with the new Rail+, one that looks more aggressive and ready to rip into whatever you can throw at it.

Big backcountry adventures

With the new Bosch CX motor, increased battery capacity and ability to run the Bosch PowerMore range extender, the Rail+ is primed for all-day backcountry adventures, taking you to remote and steep trails with ease. In our experience, mullet or MX setups really thrive in steep and deep terrain and off-piste adventures, so we expect the Trek Rail+ to thrive beyond the bike park and on fireroad epics, to those lesser-known super technical trails that are often spoken of in whispers rather than shouts.

With a claimed range of 4 – 7 hours depending on terrain, the new Trek Rail+ seems to be the perfect companion for Alpine adventures and big-mountain riding. While the bottle cage will fit a small bottle, it’s also the home of the Bosch PowerMore Range extender, so riding with a pack is a must-do for the all-day epics.

The Trek Rail+ is specced with both the Bosch System controller and Mini Remote, and doesn’t feature the Kiox head unit like former iterations of the Rail, but you can still access the full range of features using the Bosch Flow app.

Geometry tweaking

The Trek Rail+ really offers a diverse range of ride experiences, allowing the bike to ride slightly differently depending on how you set it up. With a Mino Link located on the top pivot, the headtube angle sits at 64.5 degrees in the low setting and 65 degrees in the high, and the Trek Rail+ also offers 1 degree angle adjustment either way with the angle-adjust cups in the headset (sold separately), similar to the Slash. The benefit here is offering a headtube angle adjustment without affecting the bottom bracket drop.

With a 450mm reach on our size medium, the Trek Rail+ is on point for length when comparing other bikes in this category. The geometry of the Trek Rail+ depends on the setting of the Mino Link, the bike comes set in the low position. In the low position the Trek Rail+ features a 338mm bottom bracket height, which lengthens out to 345mm in the high position, with chainstay lengths at 448mm and 446mm respectively.

What this looks like on paper is a reasonably short reach, that should handle well on steep descents without compromising on climbing position too much, though I was interested to see just how upright the position would be.

Initial Impressions: Bike and set-up

I have had a week or so putting the new Trek Rail+ 9.8 through its paces. Once we had picked the bike up from our local Trek dealer, getting ready to ride was as simple as setting up your position, setting up your suspension and linking through to the Bosch Flow App.

The Rail+ represents the first bike I’ve personally tested that featured the new generation Bosch CX Performance Line drive unit, as well as SRAM GX Eagle Transmission. It must be noted that the Bosch System Controller and Mini Remote are the same as the previous generation, which ensured instant familiarity with the drive unit controls. 

Casting an eye over the Trek Rail+ 9.8, its stealth black colourway is an understated crowd pleaser, with the matte silver decals and what we have dubbed ‘sealant splatter’ decals on the rear of the bike add some creative flair to the frame. Our Rail+ is shod with a pair of Bontrager Brevard RSL SE tyres, and SRAM Code Bronze brakes provide the stopping power.

Frame-wise, there’s no denying that the Trek Rail+ bucks the trend of streamlined lines on e-bikes, the downtube is all brawn, housing the 800Wh battery within. A key upgrade to the Trek Rail+ is the RIB 2.0 battery latch system, easily accessed with an 8mm allen key. Trek states that previous models could develop some rattle within the battery housing, and the RIB 2.0 addresses this. I haven’t had enough time to fully put this through its paces yet, but so far I haven’t experienced any rattle.

A notable change to the Trek Rail+ is the mullet wheel setup, alongside an increased rear travel of 160mm, up from 150mm. Mullet set-ups are known to thrive in steep and deep terrain, but as a tradeoff can struggle climbing steep and technical trails. Considering my criticism of the former model of the Rail+ was mainly around the bike’s characteristic as more of a ‘plower’ than a player, I was interested to see how the Trek Rail+ would perform on my local trails; a mix of secret, steep scree and more moderate bike park flow.

But before I headed out, a small complaint: the dropper lever. Why do we continue to see poorly specced dropper posts and levers on bikes of this calibre? Sure, the bike is specced with SRAM Eagle GX rather than the top of the line drivetrain, but the bike is well equipped with a Fox Performance Elite Float 38 fork and Fox Performance Elite Float X shock. To spec a cable activated Brontrager Line dropper with a flaccid plastic lever is a little below our expectations on a bike of this calibre.

Thankfully, that’s where the gripes began and ended as the remainder of Trek’s componentry brand, Bontrager’s, components that adorned the bike are well matched to the user. A Bontrager Verse short comp saddle is sure to be a crowd pleaser with its inoffensive short nose design, and the Bontrager Line Pro Stem (45mm length) and Line Pro Carbon Bar (780mm width) seamlessly generated a comfortable cockpit for a reasonably upright, comfortable ride position.

The Bontrager Line Comp 30 Wheelset would also be another place to upgrade, if that’s your thing. A burly alloy tubeless-ready wheelset, they tip the scales at over 2kg a set. But that’s why you have a Bosch Performance Line CX equipped bike, right?

Initial Impressions: On the trail

Heading out on my first ride on the Trek Rail+, I was pleasantly surprised at how a full-weight, full-powered e-bike could feel. This is in part due to its balanced and playful geometry and in part due to the sensitive and natural feeling power delivered from the Bosch Performance Line CX system. Unlike some other e-bikes I have tested, the Trek Rail+ did seem to manage to retain some flickability, goading you to hop, whip and jump though the trail rather than plow through terrain using pure brawn.

But that being said, if you want brawn there is plenty on offer. The Performance Line CX with 85Nm torque is quick off the line and responsive to very small levels of rider input, without surging excessively. Bosch really have managed how to generate a natural ride feel, even in their full powered systems and that is a remarkable thing.

Riding the Trek Rail+ alongside another e-bike with Shimano EP-801 and swapping between the two mid-ride, what was immediately noticeable at low pedalling effort and unit assistance was the sound: while Bosch have made a huge effort to reduce audibility of the motor at lower levels of support it remains more audible than the Shimano motor in this situation. Is this a dealbreaker? Well, probably not. After all, the audibility of this output is not excessive, just a mild whirring.

When you ramp up the power, however, you really notice that while the Shimano motor is noticeably louder with the increased output, the CX continues to hum along at a very similar noise level to that of just cruising. As an added bonus, I didn’t experience any of the clunk I had experienced on the earlier generation of the Bosch CX drive unit.

In terms of the rest of the gear, the SRAM Eagle GX drivetrain didn’t miss a beat in our first few rides, though we did find the Code Bronze brakes a bit difficult to get along with, lacking some crispness early on in our testing period. Ditto that dropper post; my early ride experiences reinforced the sentiment that this would be my first point of call for upgrades. It does the job, but is a little sluggish with poor action, and requires ongoing adjustment.

The cockpit set-up was reasonably comfortable from the get-go, though the bars do feature an unusual rise and sweep combination that does slightly limit angle options, though in a neutral set-up I had no complaints about the position.

While a cyclone took the wind out of our sails for a few days, I am eager to get out and test the bike in its home environment: steep backcountry trails. Stay tuned for a full review coming in issue #213.

Trek Rail+ Models

At the time of launch, the new Trek Rail+ is available in Australia in two models, the Rail+ 9.8 GX AXS we tested ($11,999.99, 24.18 kg) and the lower-specced Trek Rail+ 8 ($8,999.99, 25.08 kg). The Rail+ 8 features a RockShox Zeb Select up front with a Super Deluxe Select+ RT soaking up the noise in the rear, with a drivetrain a mix of Shimano Deore, SLX and XT components with E-Thirteen cranks. SRAM DB8 brakes are an interesting spec choice on an otherwise Shimano-dominant bike, and cockpit and wheels are provided by Bontrager. An interesting note is that Bosch’s CX Performance Line drive unit and 800Wh PowerTube is found on all models.