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TREK FUEL EX 9.7 TESTED | How does this flagship bike stack up to the competition?
Apr 12, 2019
As part of a head-to-head review feature, Rob’s been testing two 130mm travel 29er trail bikes; the 2019 GT Sensor Expert and the 2019 Trek Fuel EX 9.7. So which one has come out on top?
The Fuel EX platform has been kicking around now for what seems like forever. Well, since 2005 to be precise.
What started out as a 100mm front and rear travel XC machine, the Fuel EX has slowly but surely evolved into a 130mm all-round trail ripper. Getting longer, slacker and more aggressive in that time, the Fuel EX is now available in a staggering 18 different models and specs, plus five women specific bikes.
Here, we have the 9.7 model, which sits second from top in the line up. With 29in wheels and 130mm of travel, the Fuel EX 9.7 is, on paper, a do-it-all everyday trail bike...
To read the full review of the Trek Fuel EX 9.7 head on over to our website now..
https://singletrackworld.com/2019/04/review-the-2019-trek-fuel-ex-9-7-is-a-tech-heavy-trail-bike-that-rips-hard/
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0:01
[Music]
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[Music]
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hello this is Rob from single track and
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you join me here with the Trek Fu X 9.7
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that I've had on test for the last
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couple of months now Trek first launched
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the fu X platform back in 2005 so almost
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15 years ago now and back then it was
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100 Mil travel XC race bike so 100 Mil
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travel up front 100 Mil travel out back
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now as you can see the picture today is
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quite a lot different and the platform
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has changed completely so now we have
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130 mil travel up front and 130 mil
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travel out back 29 in Wheels but this is
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more of an aggressive trail bike rather
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than XY race bike so what we've got
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let's look at the frame first of all so
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we have a frame made up of a carbon
0:45
front triangle and an alloy rear
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triangle so the T fuel X 9.7 frame is
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absolutely riddled with technology and
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we'll start up at the top so up top we
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have the TX knock block system so
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basically when T designed the frame they
0:56
wanted to design something that had a
0:57
straight down tube rather than something
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kinked that's the to make the frame
1:00
stronger and also to make it lighter we
1:03
see a lot of frames these days that have
1:04
a slight kink in the top tube and that
1:06
is to make sure that the forks don't hit
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the frame on full lock in the event of a
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crash now it's comprised of a few
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different parts firstly we've got a
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little chip in the frame here down on
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the uh on the top tube and also special
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spaces and a special stem these all
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locked together with slight notches so
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that when the forks turn they can only
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reach a certain tolerance that means
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that they don't hit the down tube when
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you do crash if you do crash we've also
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got a neat bit of rubber armor under
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here just in case you do now moving down
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the bike we have tx's ABP or active
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braking pivot and what that is is a
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special little linkage on the Chain stay
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which means that the brake caliper can
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rotate around with the suspension which
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means when you're going through rough
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corners or rough sections of Trail when
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you using your rear brake the rear brake
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doesn't lock up and bounce in the rear
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wheel all over the place basically it
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aims to keep the tire in contact with
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the ground at all times to make sure
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you've got plenty of traction next
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little bit of technology is TR minnow
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link so this is a small linkage placed
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here in the top of the seat stay and
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basically it's a flip chip design which
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means that you can change the diom on
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the TRU so when you're flipping that in
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the low position we've got a 67° head
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angle and in the high position we got a
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67.7 dee head angle so that 7° change
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does affect the ride quite a lot by
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flipping the chip you also drop and
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raise the bottom bracket height by about
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8 to 10 millim and also change the seat
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tube angle by about half a degree so all
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these things can make a real difference
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when out on the trail so moving on from
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technology then and onto the spec of the
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bike track is opted with Fox suspension
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front and rear up front we've got a
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rhythm 34 with 130 mm of travel and out
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back we've got a float shock again 130
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mil travel but this is using the
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reactive technology now this is
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technology Fox and Trek have developed
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together uh and basically it's a clever
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shock so it adapts to your riding
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situation your riding Styles uh so if
2:44
you're on undulating trails and you
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Cruise along the shock will be nice and
2:46
supportive and and sit well into the
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travel to give you plenty of traction uh
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on on rolling Trails but then if you
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suddenly got out of the saddle and you
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were hitting a steep incline the shock
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could firm up and make sure you got
2:56
plenty of traction to get you up that
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climb really clever bit of kit and uh
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and it's worked really well throughout
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testing so on to other bits of spec then
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and drivetrain that is looked after by
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Shram we have an NX shifter and then a
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GX Eagle rear Mech and also truvative
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descendant cranks now I think this
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combination is really intelligent from
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track I think this kind of bike is is
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wanting to be ridden week in week out
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you're going to be taking out for long
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rides at the weekends and even doing
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some night rides and bits and Bobs like
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that and having that slightly lower
3:22
priced rear Mech on there just in case
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it does take a knock is really good you
3:26
don't want have to be spending 400 500
3:28
on a new rear Mech every couple of
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months
3:30
so this kind of combination really
3:31
really works for this style of bike uh
3:33
We've also got Shimano brakes here so a
3:35
mix between sham and Shimano these are
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the m6000 hydraulic brakes uh really
3:39
good brake feeli really nice bite Point
3:41
uh plenty of modulation through that
3:42
travel as well and over the test period
3:44
have been really really powerful
3:45
obviously they're not as quite as
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highend as XT or XTR but for something
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at this price point they've performed
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really well so onto wheels and finishing
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kit then and bontreger look after the
3:55
whole set so we have bont trer line comp
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30 rims and these are wrapped in x St
3:59
for team issue tires up front as stock
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you get a bon Trager bar and a bon
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Trager stem and also the Bon Trager
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dropper post so out of the box end this
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bike comes with a 750 mm wide handlebar
4:12
now for a bike that is as capable as
4:13
this on paper uh I thought that was
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really narrow and after the first couple
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of rides that became evident so I
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swapped that out pretty sharpish for a
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wider bar so I I bobbed an 800 mil wide
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new Proof Bar on here and I also brought
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that stem in a little bit so the stock
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stem is 60 mm and I've pulled that back
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to a 35 now one thing thing to know and
4:30
obviously we've talked about the knock
4:31
block system is that moving from a Tre
4:33
specific stem to anything else you're
4:35
going to need a little lockering spacer
4:37
now like I said with the knock block
4:38
system there's small notches in each
4:40
spacer and into the stem which keeps all
4:42
the whole system working together and if
4:44
you then change to a non-re them the
4:46
system isn't working so basically what
4:48
you need to do is get a locker ring
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space and now I spoke to the guys at
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Trek I managed to get one of these sent
4:52
out for the testing period which is
4:53
really good but if you are looking to
4:55
buy this bike and then want to upgrade
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cockpit it's going to cost about £750 I
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think something like that for this
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little spacer which means you can run a
5:01
non-re stem doing so though it does make
5:04
the system redundant so it's a good job
5:06
that there is this little bit of Rubber
5:07
Arm under here because if the bars do
5:09
turn it's going to hit so getting the
5:11
bike out onto the trails then was super
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easy this bike is a very comfortable and
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control bike from the get-go and out on
5:16
those first few rides Impressions were
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really really good the amount of
5:19
Technology on the bike is very evident
5:21
and you do feel in very safe hands one
5:23
thing that I did find though is that I
5:25
was riding a bit under what I usually
5:27
would so I was maybe riding at 70% of my
5:29
usual sort of riding and that was
5:30
because the bike feels really
5:32
sophisticated it feels really highend
5:33
and I almost didn't want to damage it uh
5:36
but once you do get into the riding you
5:37
really really do see the benefits so the
5:39
suspension on the bike is very Supple
5:41
indeed it's very controlled it's very
5:42
comfortable that fork out front gives
5:44
you plenty of feel through the travel
5:45
but I have noticed a few times me bottom
5:47
in the mount when you're hitting lips
5:48
and jumps and bits and Bs on the trail I
5:50
fix that by adding a little bit more
5:51
pressure I I tend to run higher
5:53
pressures on my bikes anyway uh but
5:54
playing with volume spaces will also
5:56
help out back the reactive technology
5:58
has worked a treat throughout testing
6:00
when you're on undulating trails and
6:01
you're going through different terrains
6:02
the the way the shock adapts to what
6:04
you're riding is really impressive and
6:05
you don't really notice it that much
6:07
it's only when you get to the bottom of
6:08
the trail and you think oh did I
6:09
actually flick it to open or whatever
6:10
and its tolerance is pinged when it's
6:12
got to that certain point and opened up
6:14
so that rear shock has really dealt with
6:15
the trails well in all situations the
6:17
tires have been good on hard packed sort
6:19
of rolling Trails they roll quick uh but
6:21
in anything a bit sloppy they do sort of
6:23
get a bit wandery and lose their way
6:25
again onto the cockpit and and sort of
6:27
drivetrain setup the drivve trin's been
6:28
Flawless I've never had any issues with
6:30
Shram Eagle uh and this bike is another
6:32
sort of case of it working absolutely
6:34
perfect shifting has been great there's
6:35
been minimal noise from it and I've had
6:37
no issues having to realign any of the
6:39
gears or anything like that the brakes
6:40
and the m6000 from Shimano have been
6:42
very very good on the trails like I said
6:44
they're not quite as powerful as the XTS
6:45
or XTR but what I found is that they've
6:48
done exactly what I needed them to the
6:49
the feel is really nice the the lever
6:51
feel uh the bite Point feel and the
6:53
modulation throughout the travel has
6:54
been really really good uh I've never
6:56
sort of felt like I was getting into any
6:58
sort of bad situation so onto some
7:00
durability issues then and the only real
7:02
thing that I've had an issue with is the
7:03
dropper post now I know a few people
7:05
have had issues with Bon trigger dropper
7:06
Post in the past and it's been no
7:08
different for here uh stickiness with
7:10
the lever and also stickiness with the
7:11
actual Return of the post in itself has
7:14
been a bit of an issue there's been
7:15
multiple times where I've I've come down
7:16
a descent and wanted to get back in the
7:18
saddle to climb out and I've had to
7:19
reach back and pull the the uh the
7:21
saddle up the last 30% of the travel
7:22
something like that quite a few times
7:24
I've been riding through an English
7:25
winter and it's obviously been muddy and
7:26
it's been wet I've been making sure this
7:28
post has been kept clean
7:30
uh and the problem still has been there
7:31
which is a bit annoying uh so if I was
7:33
going to buy this bike that would be
7:34
something that I would look to change
7:37
other areas that I'd look to improve
7:38
pretty quickly would be that bar and
7:40
cockpit setup like I've said that 750
7:42
mil Wide Bar out of the box just isn't
7:44
wide enough for a bike that is this
7:45
capable on the descents this bike is
7:47
ridiculously fast and when you let off
7:49
those brakes you do pick up speed
7:50
incredibly quickly and like I said just
7:52
bringing that front end in a little bit
7:53
with the sh of stem has helped quite a
7:55
lot I've been running a 21.5 in bike
7:57
here which is the largest Tre do and I'm
7:59
6' one 6 one and a half something like
8:01
that so it is quite a big bike but for
8:03
me it's not felt overly big so they say
8:05
that Riders up to 6'5 can ride a bike
8:08
like this uh so there's plenty of room
8:09
in there for different Rider Heights and
8:11
all that kind of thing so in terms of
8:12
the model range the 9.7 sits pretty high
8:15
up there's only the 9.8 and the 9.9
8:16
above it this bike retails at £
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3,150 and the 9.9 goes up to £ 6,800 so
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there's quite a jump there and for what
8:24
you get on this bike in this build I
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think this is a great great Contender
8:27
for anybody looking for a trail bike
8:28
upgrade or looking to buy their first do
8:30
all trail bike with a build kit that is
8:32
really confident inspiring like I said
8:34
there's a couple of bits that you'd want
8:35
to change uh if this was your bike just
8:37
for personal preference uh but out of
8:38
the box this is a very very comfortable
8:40
bike that's incredibly impressive on the
8:42
trails and offers a great build kit with
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plenty of technology so this has been
8:45
Rob from single track with the trik fuel
8:47
ex 9.7 make sure you head over to single
8:49
track world.com to read the full review
8:51
and click subscribe down below to see
8:52
plenty more videos to come and if you've
8:54
got any questions about this review or
8:55
any other review make sure you fire them
8:56
in the comments section below and we'll
8:58
do our best to get them answered and
8:59
we'll see you all very soon indeed
9:01
cheers
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