Originally Posted by
therealjoeblow
I think the "this year vs. last year" discussion about components is misleading... Shimano does NOT upgrade or trickle-down technologies in all of its component groups every year. In fact, many of them stay static for several years at a time. You can check their detailed yearly product spec book on their Web page to confirm, they have the Pdf's archived back to 2009.
For 2016/2017, I'm pretty sure only SLX was upgraded with trickle-down from XT. It's model numbers have changed from m690 to m7000. Deore, Alivio, Acera and Altus all appear to be the same as the 2015 models.
Cheers TRJB
That's good to know, interesting stuff.
Unrelated question - I noticed that all these Trek models come with V brakes. I wonder if it would be possible to upgrade them to hydraulic Disc break if I wanted to in a few months?
I'm' not sure if Disc breaks require a "special frame" for them to fit or could they simply be installed on any bike.