Trek’s understated yet moreish Fuel EX 7 is rather like a trail bike equivalent to corn flakes or vanilla ice cream – plain-seeming compared with some of the exotic alternatives that are now available, but extremely tasty once you get reacquainted.
The various generations of Fuel have been Trek’s 120-130mm travel do-it-all stalwarts since the days when V brakes were standard fit. They’ve seen a host of innovations in the shape of E2 tapered headsets, tubeless ready wheels and tyres, Full Floater shocks squeezed between upper linkage and chainstay tips rather than the mainframe, DRCV dual chamber shocks and ABP wheel axle concentric rear pivots, which became the multi-axle ABP convert. Trek was also the first company to provide clip-on plastic sag guides for easy shock set up.
Affordable alloy or high performance carbon frames covered a full range of prices and for years it was a go-to bike for a really good time on whatever trail was stretching out in front of you. So it was no surprise that we took an alloy EX to North Wales for our Trail Bike of the Year test a couple of years ago.
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Cockpit choices aren’t radical but they are effective
Within a couple of corners it was clear that what was needed wasn’t more evolution but a real revolution. Its little 26in wheels clattered and skipped across the rocks of Snowdonia, spilling speed and confidence all over the place as they went. The alloy frame felt heavy, there was no swagger in its steering and it was obviously lacking the tailwind effect of bigger wheels. Even though we doggedly hung onto it as a long termer to try and tweak it better we never found the love.
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