Other Trek Slash+ 9.7 – worth buying now? Looking for advice (TQ motor, high pivot, parts, battery)

Ive bought a new one, in the post. Im having real problems trying to eliminate the pedal creak.

I've been riding my Slash+ 9.7 for a month now. A couple points and my thoughts:
-I pulled the trigger on it because of the price. Two of my good riding buddies have light ebikes (a Transition and a Pivot) and i was already in the market for a non ebike in the same price range so it made sense.
-This is my first ebike, so take that for what it is.
Pros:
-Quiet drivetrain/motor
-Slash high-pivot platform and 170mm travel does what it advertises. I can throw this bike into whatever stupid situation i want, and its unfazed.
-Battery life is more than what i typically need, and power is fine for what it does honestly.
---(for example, i ride it 5.7miles up a 2000ft elevation gain paved road and it uses 1/3 of the battery. cuts the ride time more than 1/2 or a full 1/3 as well)
-component spec also does well (so far). Brakes work better than they deserve for the price point, and the suspension is better than what my 2019 Slash 9.8 had going on.
-Good looking
Cons:
-The Gen 6 high-pivot Slash platform is heavy. It also refuses to manual. (which i like to do thru bike park rollers ect.)
-I'm not a huge fan of cadence-based power, but this is a learning curve for a first-time ebike rider.
-Pedal/crank creak came in quick. Thanks to @Emailsucks98 for the pointers, i'll have to give them a try.
-During rough impacts the battery to motor cable in the downtube clanks against the frame. I'm going to put some foam liner situation, but ventilation is important down there so I'll have to be careful.
Takeaway:
I'm happy with the bike, but i personally want something more playful. (non high-pivot basically) It's not a perfect fit for me, but i feel like its worth what its priced and i'm loving it so far.

Nice. I just snuck up to Whistler Bike Park, got the peak trails in last day before they closed for the season. I saw at least 6 other Slash+'s in the bike park. Overall it reminded me what I love about the Slash+;

• Mid-pivot suspension well outperforms the other 160-170 meatbikes I have access to, so I prefer this bike for park riding. So comfy on big days!
• I run the 360wh battery in the park which makes the weight a non-issue. Was great to have the eBike for pedaling back into town after 13,000' of DH.
• It's not a full-power but this summer I've done a mix of park/lift riding and trail riding, Slash+ does both so well. Very few bikes could do both so well.
• No creaks from my motor/BB/Cranks after adjusting the comp bolts etc.
• It has a replaceable bashguard, which cracked yesterday- but what other ebikes have any protection at all?!

Did you use any carbon assembly on the motor mounts/bash guard atall?

mike172 said:

Did you use any carbon assembly on the motor mounts/bash guard atall?

Click to expand...

I cleaned everything, adjusted motor compensation bolts, put locktite on the threads in the bashguard/mounting plate, then anti-seize on the bolt shafts. It's been silent since.

I'll keep following this thread, about to head out and pedal up to a downlow trail im building. Missed a bus because it left early, but having this bike means i can pedal up to it and still send it back down home.

Emailsucks98 said:

I cleaned everything, adjusted motor compensation bolts, put locktite on the threads in the bashguard/mounting plate, then anti-seize on the bolt shafts. It's been silent since.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I greased my bolts maybe ill try copper

mike172 said:

Ive bought a new one, in the post. Im having real problems trying to eliminate the pedal creak.

Click to expand...

Have you tried tightening the chainring? That sorted mine out a couple of times on my EXE. For the Slash I had the shop redo the motor bolts and now it's silent. I think the chainring was part of it though as I tightened that up and that stopped some but not all of the creaking on the slash.

1234 said:

Have you tried tightening the chainring? That sorted mine out a couple of times on my EXE. For the Slash I had the shop redo the motor bolts and now it's silent. I think the chainring was part of it though as I tightened that up and that stopped some but not all of the creaking on the slash.

Click to expand...

Ill have another go at that, I have a new lockring to go with the bash guard.

Thanks all for the replies, really do appreciate it.

Be a while before I get back out on the bike to test it out unfortunately

Done a fair bit of riding since the last post. Hoping of some use to people.

2 main culprits for the pedal creak (for me) have been the 2x motor bolts and what I can only describe as the 'interface' between the crank arm's skirt/dust cover and the TQ lock ring.

I managed since the last post in early Sept of dry weather riding 2-2.5 hrs maybe 2-3 times a week before needing to remove the two bolts, clean with alcohol, put the thread lock, slap it up with copper grease (instead of marine grease) and re-torque to 20nm. They had worked loose last week and could feel an obvious rattttle but up till then have been good.

The 'interface' I mention needs lubricating, this seems to be where the crank arm's cover/skirt meets the TQ lock ring. I just need to keep this lubricated by spraying some stuff into the gap - in the attached photo you can make out the word 'lock' on the lock ring and that's where I put the lubricant, then spin the cranks backwards. Anything seems to do, WD40, PB Blaster, whatever. That gets rid of the creak which is a muted version of this youtube video where you apply pressure to the pedal and it creaks slightly, sometimes I can detect this when riding which is a minor irritation really:


FWIW I paid attention to the manual and installed the cranks with the 'notch' on the motor spindle facing upwards.

Ive not cleaned my chain since early Sept when it was stripped and MucOff ceramic wet applied (I use this shit even in the dry), it has been fairly quiet for a high pivot and the drive train is unclean as you can see in the photo.

This seems to keep it all quiet.

Still very, very pleased with the bike, I put the WPS Podium and a custom shim from J tech on the rear shock and will be putting the WPS podium/Shim into the zebb at some point. But standard tunes on the Rockshox Ultimate stuff I think are really great and work well in XC type stuff as well as Enduro type chunk, 3 tokens up front for me remained very supple and provided loads of mid support. Didnt take long for me to find a stem, handlebar and headset spacer setup I liked but the stock wasnt right for me.

Coming from an S4 Gen 3 Levo the Geometry changes were what I wanted and expected, and the TQ's power levels always makes a ride feel like a workout rather than a shit joke on the 95nm Levo, god knows what the newer motors with 100+ are like. My fitness levels on the DH bike have improved quite a bit.

I’ve just bought a 2025 Trek Slash+ with a TQ HPR50 at a very good price. I haven’t charged it yet, and I only did a short ride to understand how the motor works, starting from home with the battery at 40%, which is probably the level it was charged to at the factory before being delivered to the dealer, many months ago.
What I don’t understand is why the remaining battery percentage seems to change from time to time, going from 30% to 40%, then to 50%, and then dropping again. It seems that when I use the motor in Turbo mode it goes down, and when I switch back to Eco it jumps back up to higher values.

Has this happened to anyone else?
Does the battery percentage only change in 10% steps?
Why is it so unstable?

Thank you for your help

oettam20 said:

I’ve just bought a 2025 Trek Slash+ with a TQ HPR50 at a very good price. I haven’t charged it yet, and I only did a short ride to understand how the motor works, starting from home with the battery at 40%, which is probably the level it was charged to at the factory before being delivered to the dealer, many months ago.
What I don’t understand is why the remaining battery percentage seems to change from time to time, going from 30% to 40%, then to 50%, and then dropping again. It seems that when I use the motor in Turbo mode it goes down, and when I switch back to Eco it jumps back up to higher values.

Has this happened to anyone else?
Does the battery percentage only change in 10% steps?
Why is it so unstable?

Thank you for your help

Click to expand...

That sometimes happens on the very first use of the battery whilst the bms is learning the state of charge. Run it all the way down to the point where the bike shuts off, then charge it up to 100% and it should be fine after that

Mteam said:

That sometimes happens on the very first use of the battery whilst the bms is learning the state of charge. Run it all the way down to the point where the bike shuts off, then charge it up to 100% and it should be fine after that

Click to expand...

Thank you so much!

My 2023 Fuel EXE 9.7 was sadly stolen two weeks ago. I wanted to replace it with another TQ-equipped bike. In Australia the model range is quite limited compared to North America and Europe (unless ordering a Project One), so the options available immediately in Medium were essentially:

2026 models with HPR60

• 2026 Fuel+ EX 8 (AUD$10K) – aluminium frame
• 2026 Fuel+ EX 9.8 XT Di2 (AUD$13K) – carbon frame, Factory suspension
• 2026 Slash+ 9.7 (AUD$10K $8K on sale) – carbon frame

2025 models with HPR50

• 2025 Slash+ 9.7 (AUD$7K) – carbon frame
• (No 2025 EXEs in medium)

I was already thinking about getting a burlier bike next time (I visit Maydena – —where RB Hardline Tasmania is held— about once a year, and whilst I thought it would probably be a bit too much bike the rest of the time, I did wonder what a burlier bike would be like after a bunch of very good young riders on DH bikes encouraged me to at least trial one next time I was at Maydena). The price for a suitable bike in Australia made the Slash+ a no-brainer.

HPR50 vs HPR60 motor
I watched all the review videos on the Slash+ again, and seeing the positive reviews from the likes of Vital about the HPR60, whereas they were underwhelmed by the HPR50 the previous year, decided that was worth $1K to me, and got the 2026 Slash+ 9.7.

I have only ridden it for about eight hours so far, but am very happy with my purchase (albeit underwhelmed by the DB8 brakes so far). The motor is quieter, more powerful, and apparently more efficient. And it no longer drops from 3 to 2 five minutes into a climb to prevent overheating. Combined with the bigger 580kW battery I am confident that I'll now be able to take on much bigger days than I could on the Fuel EXE (which wasn't an issue 90% of the time, but it will be nice). And on my local trail, which is pretty rocky and rooty, I'm already 10s faster than my best time on my old bike over a 6 min descent.

'Bottom bracket' noise
After a few hours riding I noticed quite a lot of 'bottom bracket'-like noise under big efforts uphill.

I don't (yet) own a 50Nm torque wrench, so couldn't do much. Took it back to the LBS this morning (I didn't notice any noise riding the few km) and described the issue. Mechanic said he hadn't come across this yet, but the shop barely has any mountain bikes, so I wasn't that surprised. I respectfully gave him a link to this thread, which he was happy to accept (don't now if he actually used it).

Bike was ready a few hours later. He said he regreased and tightened to spec the crank arms and the bit that connects to the motor, but said in particular that the two motor mount bolts on the non-drive side were quite loose. So he's pretty sure that they were the culprit.

I haven't tested it yet, but he seemed very confident, and thankfully those bolts are only 20Nm, so my existing torque wrench will work for them should I get a reoccurrence in the future.

Puff said:

'Bottom bracket' noise
After a few hours riding I noticed quite a lot of 'bottom bracket'-like noise under big efforts uphill.

Click to expand...

Like this?

If it is like this then the culprit is the crank skirt (Sram Cover Cap 11.6118.072.001) I ended up removing the plastic skirt on the crank arm as I could not get rid of the noise no matter what I did. I tried grease, lubricant and even wax to try prevent it, but always came back as soon as I back peddled when there was dirt around that skirt (mainly a problem in the wet). Not great, but the TQ lockring has a rubber oring on it to prevent dirt and water ingress to the motor bearing which is better than nothing.

I also had:

Loose motor bolts
Loose crank arms
Loose lockring
Motor compensation bolts were not setup properly (Suggest you read the TQ manual)
Nothing was greased properly

Thanks to you, mike172, and Emailsucks98 for your efforts getting to the bottom of the creaks.

As mentioned previously I sent a link to this thread to the mechanic after he said he hadn't come across this before (the store is 90% road and fitness bikes)

mike172 said:

Like this?

Click to expand...

Can't be sure, but I wouldn't say so. I certainly couldn't recreate any noise simply by stomping on my pedals with the brakes on. But there was a consistent noise every crank revolution when I was pushing hard uphill unassisted.

mike172 said:

Loose motor bolts

Click to expand...

The shop mechanic reckoned this was the culprit. He said they were considerably below the torque spec. He seems convinced he has solved the problem, and I certainly didn't detect any noise riding it home. Will only get a suggestion in a couple of weeks when I'm pedalling uphill in anger how long-term the fix is.

mike172 said:

Motor compensation bolts were not setup properly (Suggest you read the TQ manual)

Click to expand...

What exactly are you referring to here? When I search the service manual I can't find any reference to 'compensation'. Do you simply mean the connection bolts (M8 x 76.5 mm — 5289570) that go through the frame from the non-drive side, and screw into the chain guard on the drive side?

I assume the HPR60 is the same as the 50, but here:


Page 15.




edit to add, mine were not setup properly and one of them seized, they are made from cheese so are easy to round off.

TQ support said I should warranty it, but the idiots I bought my bike from had a spare one laying around amazingly and replaced it for me.

mike172 said:

I assume the HPR60 is the same as the 50, but here:

https://www.tq-ebike.com/fileadmin/assets/tq-ebike/downloads/manuals/Service_Manual/DRVE_Servicemanuals_EN_Rev0300_Web.pdf

Page 15.

View attachment 181802


edit to add, mine were not setup properly and one of them seized, they are made from cheese so are easy to round off.

TQ support said I should warranty it, but the idiots I bought my bike from had a spare one laying around amazingly and replaced it for me.

Click to expand...

Ah thanks. I was looking at the completely wrong service manual!

I will hunt down the HPR60 manual from TQ now…

EDIT: Yep, it has the same. No idea if they were setup correctly. I'm going to leave the motor in the frame for the time being, but will pull it out and have a look at the first hint of more creaking. Thanks!

Do your HPR50s sound like this? Starts as soon as the motor kicks in.

On trail I don't think I hear this, but cycling around between trails Im sure I do and it bugs me. Sounds like a poorly lubricated drive train but its definitely coming from the motor.

If your motor sounds like this, it is toasted.

cloudkap said:

I've been riding my Slash+ 9.7 for a month now. A couple points and my thoughts:
-I pulled the trigger on it because of the price. Two of my good riding buddies have light ebikes (a Transition and a Pivot) and i was already in the market for a non ebike in the same price range so it made sense.
-This is my first ebike, so take that for what it is.
Pros:
-Quiet drivetrain/motor
-Slash high-pivot platform and 170mm travel does what it advertises. I can throw this bike into whatever stupid situation i want, and its unfazed.
-Battery life is more than what i typically need, and power is fine for what it does honestly.
---(for example, i ride it 5.7miles up a 2000ft elevation gain paved road and it uses 1/3 of the battery. cuts the ride time more than 1/2 or a full 1/3 as well)
-component spec also does well (so far). Brakes work better than they deserve for the price point, and the suspension is better than what my 2019 Slash 9.8 had going on.
-Good looking
Cons:
-The Gen 6 high-pivot Slash platform is heavy. It also refuses to manual. (which i like to do thru bike park rollers ect.)
-I'm not a huge fan of cadence-based power, but this is a learning curve for a first-time ebike rider.
-Pedal/crank creak came in quick. Thanks to @Emailsucks98 for the pointers, i'll have to give them a try.
-During rough impacts the battery to motor cable in the downtube clanks against the frame. I'm going to put some foam liner situation, but ventilation is important down there so I'll have to be careful.
Takeaway:
I'm happy with the bike, but i personally want something more playful. (non high-pivot basically) It's not a perfect fit for me, but i feel like its worth what its priced and i'm loving it so far.

Click to expand...

The "Manual" thing is really a let down to me...
Really need to try the Slash and Fuel.
Thanks for the resume!

I think the major issue is the size, if you are borderline and can take the L by few centimeter, go M if you want to enjoy a way better playful bike.

The more I ride it, the more at 5'10 / 178cm tall, L is not what I should pick, so I am going to sell as soon as I can. I just cannot make myself enjoy it as much as other bikes.