Trek Fuel EX 9.9 (09) Review - BikeRadar

Frame and suspension designs on Trek’s bikes have improved in leaps and bounds over the past few years. First impressions suggest its new 120mm-travel carbon Fuel EX may well be the most desirable all-rounder it has ever built.

The weight is low, construction quality is superb, and performance is potent enough for the off-the-peg bike to feel equally at home in a cross-country race or on the challenging high mountain, high-speed singletrack, where most of our test time was spent.

It’s by no means as thrill-loaded to ride as its longer travel heavier brethren, but bikes like this are better at rewarding finesse and fitness than bluster and testosterone.

The reasonable weight and comfy, well controlled performance impressed us - possibly more than any other 120mm bike we’ve tested.

Ride & handling: low centre of gravity gives excellent stability and tracking

Trek’s new California-based suspension development centre, and its man-on-the-ball Jose Gonzalez, has allowed a good but fairly ordinary single-pivot bike to evolve into something very special. 

Tipping the scales at 24.4lb, our test bike delivered supple small-bump control and superb bigger-hit control, too. Everything in between felt nicely regulated, rarely reminding us that Fox’s ProPedal options were there. Some riders will still use ProPedal on the climbs, but we were happy without it.

The back end always felt well planted on stutter bumps and rocky descents, allowing confident braking without the slight wheel skip that sometimes afflicts single-pivot bikes when the going gets rough. 

Stability and tracking under pressure was excellent, even on grunter climbs and in sprints, and there was no obvious pedal-to-shock feedback until we really had to power up a steep climb in granny gears.

The geometry – 69° head, 72.5° seat – feels perfect for rapid technical trails with lots of little ups and downs, but the occasional rock strike is a reminder that the confident stability of a low gravity centre has its downside.

The 13.3in bottom bracket isn’t that low, but the Fuel is a bike that’s at its best with its back end set up fairly soft, and you need to be aware of that when pedalling through bumpy corners.

Frame: lighter, stiffer and tougher

From its inception a few years ago, the Fuel EX has been a bike full of promise, but it was initially compromised by its weight and less than fully sorted suspension setup.

Things starting looking up in 2008. The wheel axle-centric Active Braking Pivot, Full Floater and EVO Link suspension configuration improved the efficiency of the bike to a point where it was a close runner-up in What Mountain Bike’s Bike of the Year awards.

So what’s new for 2009? Well, the new lighter, stiffer and tougher frame has its status boosted with a great selection of finishing kit and its trail performance boosted with custom-tuned forks and shocks from Fox. That’s something that might just swing the choice balance for riders comparing it to Specialized bikes but not yet convinced by the Specialized move to proprietary forks and shocks.

Trek’s Active Braking Pivot is a concentric suspension pivot at the rear axle – above or in front of the axle is more usual. In terms of axle path, the Fuel is a single-pivot frame, but the ABP position means that braking can’t unduly mess with the suspension. 

The Full Floater bit of the design means neither shock mount is fixed, so the shock rate and resulting suspension feel can be fine-tuned with absolute precision as the shock moves through its travel.

A new OCLV (Optimum Compaction Low Void) carbon mainframe and asymmetric aluminium chainstays offer tidy and practical lines, with generous standover clearance and loads of mud room. 

The new EVO Link will be made from a single moulded carbon piece, said to be lighter, stiffer and stronger than the magnesium one on our test bike. Trek’s claimed frame weight is 2250g, including the Fox XV (Extra Volume) RP23 rear shock, specially tuned for Trek to achieve small bump compression and a ‘bottomless’ big-hit feel.

The evolution of previous features and new ideas has helped Trek to drop weight, boost strength, add stiffness and, above all, offer a better overall performance feel. Carbon ‘net moulding’ produces the new EVO link and allows for frame-fit bearings, notably into the 95mm wide BB shell, so no more external screw-in cups or aluminium sleeves. The oversized shell also allows for a bigger down tube, boosting frame stiffness.

Equipment: mix of XTR and SRAM, Fox fork and Bontrager finishing kit

Parts-wise, Trek has taken the line of least resistance for those who’ll feel attracted to the Fuel. The drivetrain uses an XTR crankset and front mech plus SRAM X.0 shifters and rear mech. 

Bontrager Rhythm Pro wheels have fat rims that create an ideal profile on fast 2.25in Jones XR treads, which are great in the dry but traction-shy in mud.

A Bontrager RXL carbon bar, alu stem, carbon seatpost and minimalist saddle are racey offerings, but they do the job nicely. We were very impressed by the performance of the new F Series Fox RP24 fork, while Avid’s Juicy Ultimate brakes perform well.

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