2013 Trek Fuel 9.9 EX - any good today?
05-20-21, 10:58 AM
#1
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2013 Trek Fuel 9.9 EX - any good today?
A friend of a friend is selling one of these in my size for $900, which seems like a reasonable price considering MSRP was something like $8400.
However, I'm concerned this is just another throw-away bike that will be impossible to maintain. This is well into the time where Trek started all their proprietary bulls--t (I'm thinking road bikes) that's not only garbage, but incompatible with anything else.
- Can the Fox fork and rear shock be maintained?
- Rear suspension pivots? I went looking for these on an old carbon Fuel a long time ago. The mechanic at the Trek store gave me a blank stare before coming up with, "uhh, that's an old bike so we can't get parts." Top of the line bike well under 10 years old, WTF? So I sold it.
- 15mm front hub; 142x12mm rear hub, are these still around today? These thru-axle "standards" seem to change every six months.
- Other concerns?
However, I'm concerned this is just another throw-away bike that will be impossible to maintain. This is well into the time where Trek started all their proprietary bulls--t (I'm thinking road bikes) that's not only garbage, but incompatible with anything else.
- Can the Fox fork and rear shock be maintained?
- Rear suspension pivots? I went looking for these on an old carbon Fuel a long time ago. The mechanic at the Trek store gave me a blank stare before coming up with, "uhh, that's an old bike so we can't get parts." Top of the line bike well under 10 years old, WTF? So I sold it.
- 15mm front hub; 142x12mm rear hub, are these still around today? These thru-axle "standards" seem to change every six months.
- Other concerns?
05-21-21, 09:16 AM
#2
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A friend of a friend is selling one of these in my size for $900, which seems like a reasonable price considering MSRP was something like $8400.
However, I'm concerned this is just another throw-away bike that will be impossible to maintain. This is well into the time where Trek started all their proprietary bulls--t (I'm thinking road bikes) that's not only garbage, but incompatible with anything else.
- Can the Fox fork and rear shock be maintained?
- Rear suspension pivots? I went looking for these on an old carbon Fuel a long time ago. The mechanic at the Trek store gave me a blank stare before coming up with, "uhh, that's an old bike so we can't get parts." Top of the line bike well under 10 years old, WTF? So I sold it.
- 15mm front hub; 142x12mm rear hub, are these still around today? These thru-axle "standards" seem to change every six months.
- Other concerns?
However, I'm concerned this is just another throw-away bike that will be impossible to maintain. This is well into the time where Trek started all their proprietary bulls--t (I'm thinking road bikes) that's not only garbage, but incompatible with anything else.
- Can the Fox fork and rear shock be maintained?
- Rear suspension pivots? I went looking for these on an old carbon Fuel a long time ago. The mechanic at the Trek store gave me a blank stare before coming up with, "uhh, that's an old bike so we can't get parts." Top of the line bike well under 10 years old, WTF? So I sold it.
- 15mm front hub; 142x12mm rear hub, are these still around today? These thru-axle "standards" seem to change every six months.
- Other concerns?
Yes 15 x 100 and 142 x 12 thru axles are still available these days. My 2016 29er hard tail has those hubs. 2016-ish is when boost hub standard started showing up.
It's quite possible there may not be parts available for shock and fork but replacement parts of equivalent or better should be available. But if it's a 26" bike...26' suspension forks are starting to become scarce.
05-21-21, 04:18 PM
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If it's similar to my 2011 Fuel EX8, I'd pass. My rear Fox died which was proprietary and I couldn't find any replacement. I tried rebuilding it with new o-rings and all but that didn't work. There were some used ones on EBay but $$$. You might be able to finagle a shock just as long as you have the measurements and spacers right but I didn't have the time nor money to do that. I sold it as a frameset with the bad shock.
05-21-21, 05:03 PM
#4
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With a bike like this you don't want to have to blow a lot of money in upgrades or fixing things. What kind of shape is in currently in? What kind of maintenance has already been done on the fork, shock, dropper, linkages...... This is something you buy because yes it looks like a good bike and is still fairly modern spec wise other than the 26er bit to try out for a year or two and then unload on somebody else and get $400-600 back on it. Then you get something new. I don't know if you get into internal parts of the fork and shock but just normal oil change stuff won't be a problem. The hubs standards that bike runs are still around, one of my bikes still runs those. I haven't look at 26er tire options in a while but I'm sure there are still plenty out there.
