I have just bought a trek fuel 9.8 2015 27.5. I have an 26″ fuel at the minute with a float 140 on the front and rp23 on the rear. On the 3 rides I have had I keep clattering the crank arms when I would have thought it would be higher due to the bigger wheel size. Does that happen on your one? I don’t want put more pressure in as it will make it harsh then.

The ctd locks the front out completely but the rear does not. It is more like the pro pedal on my old one where it just damps it heavily. When it’s in trail or descent as I say the back end bottoms out or the cranks hit on bends etc.

What is your experience of this setup?

Ps I am 5.10 and 10.5 stone.

Using the Trek suspension set up guide for your bike and weight.

Fork
70psi
13 clicks out on the rebound

Shock
160 psi
9 clicks out on rebound.

What settings have you been using?

Bigger wheelsize doesn’t automatically mean higher bottom bracket . You must have added the 140 fork to your original fuel that was designed to work with a 120mm fork which will raise the BB of that bike higher than normal , perhaps that’s your problem .

Current geometry trend is to have lower bottom bracket heights. This lowers the centre of mass and allows the bike to corner better. The downside of this is higher chance of pedal strikes.

I’m not a geometry expert but I would consider the Trek Fuel Ex BB height of 33.8cm is towards the lower end.

You may just need to adjust your riding style a little to account for the low bb height. I had the same issue with my Transition Bandit, the frame has a low bb height and I accidently got long cranks for it exaggerating the problem. Took me about 3 or 4 weeks to adjust but now I rarely if ever get pedal strikes.

I’ve got the 7 version of the same bike and also found I was getting pedal strikes initially. I’ve just got used to it as I run the suspension quite soft, the Trek guideline pressures are a bit hard for my liking. My rear shock also doesn’t fully lock out but I never touch the lever as I get very little bob in any case! I’m 5″7′ and 10 stone for reference.

It’s just a general trend that BB heights are getting lower, other bike I tried at the time were the same.

The bike shop set it up based on the sag. This gave really supple ride. I increased the pressure and that made it harsh. This was still well short of the recommended trek pressures. I might have to live with this but it is annoying. I banged the crank arm on a rock on the first ride and scratched it terribly. My old one would have was higher due to the higher forks and I had some offset pins on the rear shock. I will certainly make another one for the bottom pivot on the shock. That should give me another 2-3 mm.

It does take the edge off an otherwise great bike though.