TREK FUEL EXE 9.9 XX1 AXS
SWINGING A LEG OVER WHAT’S HOT THIS MONTH Trek’s latest e-bike is teeming with new tech, but will the Fuel EXE get us gassed?
£13,250 • 29in • trekbikes.com
The e-bike market has rapidly become a numbers game. Where more torque, increased battery capacity and higher prices are all taken at face value as progress. Well, maybe not the pricing. And while the pedal-assist feature guarantees that these machines are very much bicycles, there’s no denying that the metrics on which they are commonly judged are analogous to motorsports.
But much in the same way that cars which handle well, often in spite of their numbers, are referred to as drivers’ cars, the emerging lightweight mid-powered e-bike designs have their sights firmly fixed on becoming riders’ bikes.
And on that front, Specialized leads the way with its lightweight Levo SL and Kenevo SL platforms. Compact motors with 35Nm torque and smaller 320Wh batteries offer some assistance, while the reduced weight makes the handling more in keeping with a conventional mountain bike. The main benefit of Specialized’s design being the low resistance in the motor when pedalling above the 15.5mph assistance limit.
The Orbea Rise is another e-bike outlier, its detuned Shimano EP8 RS motor restricted to 60Nm torque and powered by a 360Wh battery. And while the Rise is a light bike, it could be lighter still with a dedicated motor. But that’s not what makes the Rise interesting. It’s the mid-power level combined with its lightweight that gives it a best of both worlds approach. And it’s an approach we’re going to see a lot more of.
Enter the new Trek Fuel EXE. To my knowledge it’s the first truly dedicated lightweight, mid-power e-bike from a mainstream manufacturer. The compact TQ motor delivers 50Nm torque and neatly housed inside the slender down tube is a 360Wh battery (1,835g). The motor weighs 1,850g and because the concentric design is so small it’s hard to distinguish the new Fuel EXE from the non-motorised version. The fact that the TQ motor is almost silent makes it even harder to tell it apart from the analogue Fuel EX.
There are differences though. The
EXE has 140mm of travel on the rear married to a 150mm fork, so 10mm more suspension muscle at both ends than the current Fuel EX. It also has more progressive geometry and sizing, a direct result of it being a newer design. The EXE retains some of Trek’s signature features though, like the ABP suspension layout and Mino Link that offers two geometry settings.
Total weight for the top-end Fuel EXE 9.9 is 19.28kg (42.51lb). So it’s really a mid-weight, mid-power e-bike, given that the Canyon Spectral:on CFR that launched a couple of months ago weighs 22.75kg with a massive 900Wh battery and full-power Shimano EP8 motor.
That said, a 3.47kg weight saving is not to be sniffed at. And if you’re a lighter rider, you’ll definitely feel like less of a passenger on the Fuel EXE. Also if weight saving is your primary focus, the EXE 9.9 XTR at £11,500 is almost
1kg lighter than the XX1 AXS build as it doesn’t have any of the additional electronics like the AXS wireless dropper and drivetrain. Actually, the SRAM XX1 AXS rear derailleur on 9.9 isn’t totally wireless, as it’s hooked