Can anyone comment on the Trek Fuel EX9 WSD? I have been shortlisting a few bikes for a potential purchase and have noticed this on sale for for £1600 which seems a good deal based on the RRP.

The Santa Cruz Juliana had been high on my list but at the sale price the Trek is tempting.

I will be using it for general cross country riding and a little downhilling.

Julie

IIRC it has received good reviews in the mags.

A couple of review here (first is the mens though).

http://www.bikemagic.com/review/reviewproduct/mps/RGN/1/RCN/57/RPN/30514/v/2/sp/

http://www.mtbr.com/reviews/xc_full_suspension/product_124738.shtml

Julie,

My misses went thru the "which bike" delimma a few months ago and in the end opted for the EX9 WSD.

He also rode the Giant Genious Contessa which felt to "twitchy" and had a saddle that managed to draw blood ! A Spec FSR which might have been okay if we'd have had a longer demo. She kept swinging back to the WSD tho as it felt immediately confortable, was easy to get going/keep going and felt comfy (x2 slipped disc's).

The Rockshox suspension is great being v.plush right out of the box and adjustable to boot. We run it full soft and hit the Poploc to tighten the ends up on the smooth.

The spec of the EX9 is top notch too and makes for a nice light bike.

We didn't pay retail either ;-)

Grab yourself a test ride and I'm sure you won't be disappointed. If you're stuggling then you're welcome to pop over to n.Bucks and try ours - I'm hope she won't mind ! PM me if you're interested.

Cheers, Farq's

Thanks for the replies, I went to the shop to check one out today, it's a fine looking bike.

Farq's can you tell me how many inches your misses stands over the top tube?, I tried the 14" which gave me about 3", but found the reach a little bit too short, the reach felt great on the 16" frame but I then only had a couple of inches space over the top tube.

I'm wondering if only having a couple of inches would be a problem, otherwise the bike felt perfect.

thanks,

Julie

personaly I'd go for the smaller frame and look at a layback post, and possibly a slightly lower rise bar, might be able to lower bars by removing spacers under the stem, or even a stem thats maybe 10mm longer if if feels a little cramped, but that's IMO, I get the biggest buzz from riding tecnical stuff and a smaller frame makes the bike more 'chuckable'for want of a better word. But try that in the shop, £1600 is a big lump of cash so they should be happy to make these adjustments for you to try before you buy.

Julie,

It sounds like you're in the same boat as my partner. She has <2"'s tt clearance on a 16" WSD but it hasn't been a problem during emergency dismounts.

The 14" just felt way too cramped and I seriously doubt that any 'tweaks' would have helped. I like an agile bike too but this was simply too small.

Since owning the bike for a few wks now we've even found the 16" a little cramped, although the demo bike felt fine. We've swapped the short, stubby 70mm stem for a 120mm (100mm still to try) and also have a layback post on order. If you need any bits to play around with then drop me a line 'cos we're building quite a collection of Bonty bits around here. You may even manage to get 'em changed at the point of sale, if you're sure...

My partner is 5' 6" and has a 30" inseam (approx).

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Cheers, Farq's

Thanks for the info Farq's, I'm a similar height and inseam to your partner, I'll have to try both of them again, it's good to hear she's having no problems with only having 2" of clearance.

Hopefully I'll be checking out the Santa Cruz Juliana tomorrow and will then be in a position to make a choice.

Julie

I've spent today looking at bikes, and have had a similar problem with top tube height on all of them. I think my legs must be a bit too small.

I tried a Specialized Stuntjumper FSR and even on the small sized womens bike I only had 1" of clearance.

I liked the Juliana, but the components were pretty low spec for the £1600 version compared to the Trek, and also the Trek looked much nicer, I know looks should not be a big deal when choosing a bike, but the decision was so hard I had to choose something to separate them.

I ended up ordering a 16" Trek, which I pick up on Wednesday, very excited. I'm going to ride it for a month or two and then decide if I have to modify it in any way for a better fit.

Julie

Way to go Julie, well done.

You won't be disappointed.

F.Y.I. On the Reba's up front we've found that it's worth playing around the +tive and -tive pressures to get it feeling right. I think we're running with 20-30psi less in the -tive.

We're also running v.little floodgate and prefer a soft/supple setup with the Poploc to tighten it up when need be.

Our floodgate is a little odd and needs to be a turn in from minimum else full min gives a locked out feeling.

Enjoy, Farq's

Farqui, My misses also just test rode the EX9 (mens version though as we are waiting fro teh WSD from lbs) and the same issue was present with our flood gate, if you had it fully on minimum it would be effectively locked out, so we had to turn it slighty in then it was fine.