Hello m looking at getting my first fs bike and realy lke the look of the trek fuel ex8. Has anybody got any experience of these or can you offer alternatives for the same price range which is 2300 new. Thanks in advance

Where do you ride, do you have any preference to the amount of travel you’d like? The fuels have been around a while now and are proven rides. The new 2013 changes look to have made it even better so I doubt you’ll go wrong with one.

Ride trail centres mainly cannock chase and ocasionaly welsh trail centres. Looking for 130 or 120 mm travel.

I ride Cannock mainly too. There are plenty of second hand bargains around if you were to go down that route. I ride a specialized stumpjumper which I highly reccomend, as I said before the fuel ex is a solid bike. Others to consider are:

Specialized camber
Ghost AMR
Whyte T 120
Cannondale Jekyll
Yeti ASR 5

The list goes on…

In 2011 I promised myself that 2012 would see me get into a FS and I really liked the look of EX8 as you do, however a major op put paid to my dream until a friend of a friend had a 4 month old EX9 for sale due to financial problems . I bought it almost as new for a fraction of its true price as he needed cash quick. I’ve had it 9 months and not ridden it in anger yet but pottering about I cannot believe how light and manouverable it is for a big full sus though I’m not used to ’em at all. I didn’t believe that I could prefer it to my beloved HT but I do and theres no reason why EX8 should be any different the reviews over the last year or two have been excellent so I say press on ,you’ll love it.

Rosss my mates got a camber and that seems really good aswell tbh

I have a 2009 model, it’s very good for trail centers climbs very well and corners quite well the bearings have held up fine. A great bike

The more modern versions with a stiffer fox fork at the front should corner much better.

It’s very similar in design to the Trek session DH bike!