Trek’s Fuel EX range must surely be one of the most versatile and well respected bikes of the last five years. It almost single handedly relaunched Trek into the dual suspension market and through its numerous iterations has gained widespread critical acclaim across the world, as well as selling a hell of a lot of bikes for the Wisconsin brand. Normally when you’re onto a good thing you stick with it, but for better or worse the 26-inch wheel has fallen out of favour and in order to move with the times Trek needed to make some changes.
Ahead of the launch in July 2013 many people were anticipating a Fuel EX with 27.5 wheels, so it came as quite a surprise to see the new range come out with 29-inch hoops across the board. You can bet a lot of thought went into this decision; in order to keep their market share the folks at Trek needed to be certain that the new Fuel EX range was every bit as capable and versatile as its predecessor. Trek has been doing 29ers as long as or longer than anyone in the game so they know how to make big wheeled bikes, and it was with much anticipation that we took delivery of the Fuel EX9 29er and prepped it for hitting the trail.
The EX9 is the top spec alloy version in the eight-tier range; things start with the EX5 at a very affordable $1,999, and continue up to the full carbon framed and Shimano XTR equipped EX9.9 at $9,499. Trek also makes two models with their women’s-specific geometry, called the Lush and Lush SL at $2,499/$3,299 respectively. Most models are available in six sizes; the breadth and depth of the Fuel EX range clearly indicates the importance Trek places on this particular bike.
For its $3,999 asking price the EX9 comes with everything you could wish for in a modern mountain bike, including a stealth-routed Reverb dropper seatpost, Fox CTD suspension front and back, Shimano XT brakes and 2x10 drivetrain, and tubeless ready wheels. Cockpit is from Trek’s Bontrager brand which has come ahead in leaps and bounds over the last few years, and the stock tyres are one of our favourites in recent times; the Bontrager XR3 Team tyres are supplied in a very healthy 2.35 width. Full credit to Trek; if you were to put together a wish list of high performance, trail-worthy parts to hang off a bike, chances are most of them would already be on the Fuel EX9 in its stock form, and at the price point you probably won’t find much better value for money.
The frame is a completely new design, and in terms of aesthetics we like it a lot. The frame’s lines flow purposefully and smoothly from the stubby head tube all the way to the 12mm bolt through rear dropouts, and the partially internal cable routing is also clean and neat. We expect quality welds on our bikes these days and the EX9 doesn’t disappoint, and the highly polished finish looks particularly classy.
All of the modern expectations are met; post mount rear brakes, direct mount front mech, ISCG tabs for a chain guide and rubberised down tube and chainstay protectors. All up our 19.5-inch sample weighed 13.1kg without pedals, of which the frame and shock made up 2,910g; all very acceptable for a bike of this size and travel. It’s nice to see room for a water bottle, too; no need to carry a pack for that short afternoon blast around your local loop.
Frame stiffness is very good, no doubt helped by the seriously large head tube junction and the 92mm press fit bottom bracket. Tyre clearance is excellent even with the supplied wide rubber, and the low standover height means your family jewels are relatively safe from harm. If we had to nit-pick about the frame we’d say that the exit ports for the internal routing are very small and a cable change will likely require quite a bit of fishing, and also that some of the suspension pivots screw directly into the frame; in the unlikely event of an over-zealous spanner hand we’d much prefer to replace a stripped nut than a swing arm or seat stay assembly. Still, these are relatively minor points in an otherwise well executed and attractive frame.
Evolutionary Technology
The EX9 29er uses all the acronym-rich trickery that helped to make its forbears such outstanding bikes. The ABP rear pivot is concentric with the rear axle, a design that gives the simple suspension path and stiff back end of a single-pivot bike combined the independent braking and suspension forces of a multi-link design. The seat stays push a lightweight, one piece magnesium ‘EVO link’ to compress the shock, whilst the lower shock eye is connected to an extension of the swing arm; Trek’s name for this arrangement is Full Floater, as the shock effectively ‘floats’ between these two moving points rather than being connected to the main frame. The advantages of this design are twofold; firstly having two moving points attached to the shock allows greater design freedom when tuning the leverage ratio, and secondly the main frame tubes can be lighter as they don’t need to absorb the force of a the suspension unit being rammed into them hundreds of times per minute.
The last part of the suspension picture is the patented DRCV (Dual Rate Control Valve) shock, which results from a collaboration between Trek and Fox. It uses the latest version of their CTD (Climb Trail Descend) damper, but what sets it apart is the air spring; there is a small secondary air chamber on top of the shock which is opened by an internal pushrod at a predetermined point in its travel. The idea is that the main air chamber can be kept relatively small to provide a livelier feel and better mid-stroke support for pedalling, whilst the secondary chamber opens up on larger impacts to increase overall air volume and prevent the shock from ramping up too harshly. It’s a system Trek has been using on a number of bikes for several years now, and it works seamlessly and as claimed.
The Fuel EX29 uses a custom length shock, so be careful when setting sag—the full stroke is only 47mm, not the more common 51mm as you might expect. The shock’s CTD damper has also been re-tuned for 2014, and there are now three distinctly different damper settings to choose from. The ‘Climb’ mode is still more or less a lockout, the ‘Descend’ setting is very supple and smooth and the ‘Trail’ setting is the Goldilocks option for most of you general riding needs. It’s worth mentioning that the new EX9 no longer uses a DRCV fork; Fox have been busy adjusting the spring rate of all their forks and the new tune is obviously good enough that Trek can no longer justify the expense of the DRCV technology up front.
Geometrically speaking the EX9 29er is a mix of old and new-school ideas. The 627mm effective top tube is quite lengthy and makes for a spacious cockpit, whilst the relatively steep seat angle keeps your butt on the saddle for longer as the gradient turns uphill. The bottom bracket is reasonably low without trying to scrape your toes in the gravel, but the chainstays, at 452mm, are on the longer end of things for a modern 29er. The 90mm stem is also overkill given the rangy top tube length and you may wish to swap it for something 20-30mm shorter before you leave the shop.
Trek’s 29ers use their G2 Geometry, which combines a slightly slacker than average head angle with a longer fork offset to provide quick steering at low velocities without compromising stability when pointed downhill at speed. This combination works well enough that it’s becoming accepted as the industry norm—imitation, as they say, is the sincerest form of flattery.
Fuel Up
The 26-inch Fuel EX was a bike that you could take virtually anywhere and know that, short of a World Cup downhill track, your bike could get you through whatever you encountered, and do it in a way that left you smiling. It was a bike that felt like it always had a little travel in reserve, yet was still nimble and sprightly when you were busy earning your turns. Those are big shoes to fill, but the EX9 29er does just that; to a point, at least. Give it an open trail, or a stepped climb, or an off camber corner and it’s is every bit as good as the model it replaces—in fact it’s pretty safe to say that it’s better.
With the shock in Descend mode there’s quite a bit of pedal induced suspension movement, but flipping to the Trail setting largely eliminates it. The EX9 climbs particularly well in the granny ring, and like all 29ers the improved rollover ability it possesses makes short work of many rough ascents that would really challenge a bike with smaller wheels. On sketchy high-speed corners the bike’s relatively central weight distribution and the long contact patch of the excellent Bontrager tyres makes it very fast indeed, and it feels planted and stable on long fire road descents. We also loved the way it handled flowing, undulating trails; there’s an enthusiasm to the way it sweeps through bends which many other 29ers fail to capture and this alone is enough to win over many 29er sceptics.
Launch the EX9 off a lip and it stays very neutral in the air, and it’s light enough that you can change direction mid-flight; not as nimble as the 26er perhaps, but still not a difficult bike to chuck around. We did find it used the 120mm of rear travel a little too easily for our liking, so if your riding tends to involve a lot of drops or jumps you might want to run a bit less sag than normal to keep it from bottoming out too frequently. The fork, on the other hand, was progressive enough to allow at least 20-25% sag, and we only once hit its bump stops during our test period. It’s also not the easiest bike to manual, but fortunately the big wheels roll over the ground so easily that in most scenarios you can simply pick a line and plough.
Where the EX9 29er falls a little short of its predecessor is in steep, technical, low-speed terrain. In these circumstances there’s no getting around the fact that those long chainstays mean you’ve got a lot of bike behind you, and what’s in front is not as slack as you’d like. There’s a section on our local trail where a steep bit of narrow singletrack makes a quick right/left between a large rock and a fallen tree, before turning sharply and plunging down a loose 45-degree slope and launching you off a one-metre high fallen tree onto an equally steep transition. This almost immediately feeds you through another narrow tree gap and into a sharp left-hander, and so on from there. This bit of trail demands great needle-threading accuracy and we’ve never ridden a long chainstay equipped bike that felt confident going down this little tester; the Fuel EX9 is no exception. Likewise, on another section of trail with a series of four steep, rutted, low-speed berms in quick succession; there was a definite sense of waiting for the rear wheel to catch up with the rest of the bike. The EX9 does some things really, really well; just not this sort of riding.
Trek knew that the outgoing Fuel EX was going to be a hard act to follow; the new EX9 29er isn’t really trying to imitate the old model, but rather it’s cutting its own path in the MTB world. It’s not quite as nimble, nor as delinquent in its manner as the 26er was, and it doesn’t feel like there’s that little reserve of travel tucked away for when you need it. However it now climbs with the best of them, clocks up the miles with ease and offers that big-wheel predictability and stability that many riders have grown to love. The outstanding value of the EX9 package is just the icing on the cake. We think it’s perfect for riders who want to make flowing trails feel more flowy, bumpy trails feel more buff and climbs seem somehow less arduous. If this sounds like you, get up, fuel up and hit the trail.
Thumbs Up
Rails flowy turns
Devours technical climbs
Long-haul comfort
Thumbs Down
Lacks agility in the tight stuff
Linear travel blows through on harder hits
Specifications
Frame: Alpha Platinum Aluminium
Shock: Fox DRCV CTD 120mm Travel
Fork: Fox Float CTD 120mm Travel
Headset: FSA Orbit Tapered
Handlebars: Bontrager Race Lite 720mm
Stem: Bontrager Race Lite
Shifters: Shimano XT
Front Derailleur: Shimano XT
Rear Derailleur: Shimano XT
Cassette: Shimano XTR, 11/36 10-speed
Chain: Shimano XT
Cranks: Shimano XT
Bottom Bracket: Shimano Press Fit
Pedals: N/A
Brakes: Shimano XT
Wheels: Bontrager Rhythm Elite Tubeless Ready
Tyres: Bontrager XR3 Team Issue 2.3
Saddle: Bontrager Evoke 2
Seatpost: RockShox Reverb Stealth Dropper
Weight: 13.1kg without pedals (19.5-inch frame 2,910g)
Available Sizes: 15.5, 17.5, 19.5 (tested), 21.5 and 23”
Price: $3,999
Distributor: Trek Bicycles Australia www.trekbikes.com
