Long-Term Review: Trek Top Fuel
The do-it-all endurance bike with an appealing ride feel
The Trek Top Fuel is a 120mm cross-country bike designed to be versatile enough for racing at the highest level in XC or Marathon events, or rallied hard on your local trail network. In theory, that should make it ideal for the majority of riders in South Africa who find themselves riding a wide variety of terrain and then also lining up for one or two big events a year. A kind of, do-it-all endurance bike.
This is a long-term review for the 9.8 GX AXS model, a performance-orientated build that carries a lot of carbon bits and pieces and comes in at R130k. Higher spec models of the Top Fuel will run up as high as R240k (gulp!) and the lowest price point option is R45k, it’s a pretty comprehensive range. All the models have the same geometry – more on that in a bit. What I want to mention is, I was not given this bike by Trek. Instead, I bought it from a retailer in Cape Town, in the middle of the pandemic – when stock levels were low, demand was high and good deals were non-existent.
Off the showroom floor, I made some component changes including fitting a longer dropper post, carbon cranks and a set of aluminum bars. These changes weren’t motivated by a poor build kit, they are rather all personal preferences that suit my riding style and intended use.
If you want to take a closer look at the componentry and how I set the bike up, take a look at this video which we made back then:
Ride Impressions
I’ve ridden this bike for a little over two years and put around 2000km on it, covering a wide variety of terrain including just about all the techy singletracks of the Cape Peninsula, the best trail centers in the Cape Winelands and plenty of stretches on the roads that link the trails.
My initial impressions were quite good. This is my fourth Top Fuel (yes, I bought all of them) and although the changes to this current generation bike were only 5mm more rear travel, a slightly longer reach, slacker head angle and refined kinematics – it was blatantly obvious the bike climbed better than the previous model and was far more capable on the gnarliest rocky and rooty descents around.
It wasn’t until a few months into ownership when I started to play around with tyre selection, that I truly unlocked the real versatility — of the Top Fuel. Ahead of some longer coaching sessions with stronger riders, I fitted lightweight XC race tyres and shaved almost 400 grams of rotational weight. The impact on acceleration was palpable, as was my climbing speed. Yes, with the smaller volume and fast rolling tyre setup – the two major trade-offs were climbing grip and descending speed. In this “XC race” setup, applying caution on the descents and finesse on techy climbs is a necessity. It’s still capable of getting sendy, but I needed to apply just a little more caution and precision than with the stock, higher-volume tyres. It’s fast though – and I can see why Jolanda Neff raced a Top Fuel at a World Cup last year.
On another occasion, I did some Enduro wheel testing and ran heavy casing tyres on the Top Fuel. In this setup, I hit some very techy lines at speeds approaching what I would on a longer travel trail bike. Admittedly I was blowing through the travel a bit and needed to up compression and pressures – but at the time I was (and still am) pretty giddy about the speeds attained. It’s only 120mm of travel – and every bit of me was bewildered by the capability of the Top Fuel — it simply shouldn’t be able to cope with that pace on those rough trails. In this setup, it would even be pretty competitive at some of the local Enduro races.
Mostly, my Top Fuel is set up for two-hour ‘epics’ on my local trails, smashing climbs and flowing on descents. For this, I’ve settled on fast-rolling XC tyres to help with the climbing whilst also offering an ‘incentive’ to be smart with smooth line choice on the janky bits of my local. On longer tar climbs, I might use the rear lockout, but mostly ride the bike in the fully open suspension settings – the pedal efficiency in the system (kinematics and shock) is excellent.
After two years on the bike, the biggest takeaway I can offer is it’s one of the most versatile machines I’ve ever owned. The secret to its versatility lies in the geometry. More specifically, the slacker head angle, short seat tube, long reach and short stem combine well enabling a slightly forward rider position when climbing and an ‘in-the-bike’ rider position when descending. That geometry helps optimize both power output and the sheer shredability of the bike giving the rider the best of both worlds.
Looking closer at the performance of the build kit, I’ve had nothing but good luck and a trouble-free two years on the bike, except when I didn’t. I snapped a chain, once – and that’s the only breakdown I experienced – to be fair, it was worn and needed to be replaced. The standout part on the build kit has to be the Bontrager carbon wheels – knowing they are covered by Trek’s warranty, I have perhaps hammered them a little harder than I should — touching wood — I haven’t cracked or damaged them.
The most useful feature and something that makes the Top Fuel really easy to live with is the downtube storage solution. Now, downtube storage is not something you’ll think you need, until you don’t have it. I use it for a breakdown kit, tubeless repair, gilet and energy bars. Very handy. I don’t know if I’d ever buy an endurance bike that doesn’t have some sort of downtube storage system. It’s incredibly convenient and I enjoy riding with less ‘stuff’ in my pockets.
Takeout
Riding the Top Fuel is a ton of fun and in another lifetime, with my bike quiver dramatically reduced (Lord please no) the Top Fuel or a similarly versatile 120mm bike would likely be the priority purchase. Based on my experience, I highly recommend the Top Fuel for someone who is an all-around endurance rider looking for a stable and forgiving bike that can handle any type of XC mission from a mate’s coffee ride to Wines2Whales to the Cape Epic.
| IMAGES: Gary Perkin, Troy Davies |