0:47 you have the Minow link set in the "LOW" position which lowers your BB If you're having issues with pedal strike I would suggest running the link in the high position thus raising your BB slightly.
Just stumbled across your video. I am not sure if this comment will ever be read but I had to leave something. I’ve never seen any of your other videos including the positive one about the EX8 I have a fuel EX8 and it is a very similar year to yours. Can’t tell if it’s exactly the same but very close! I love it! It rides like a dream and I feel lucky to be able to ride it a lot. ❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏👍 When people ask me how I like it I tell them I love it and that is no BS But I gotta say after riding in a while - 4 yrs now …..I do notice my pedals hit the roots a lot. I wouldn’t say my dropper post sticks but I have complained about how far and hard I have to depress the lever it to activate it it’s tough! The words “ The brakes are not great” have come out of my mouth.😎 To hear you say the exact combination of those 3 critiques blew my mind!!! I guess I’m not crazy after all. Like I said you may never see this but I had to say something. Ill go check out your other positive review I hope you’re still enjoying your bike as much as I’m still enjoying mine👍
I think you need to pay more attention to where your feet are positioned. Pedal strikes are rider error not bike issues. If it’s that bad go with shorter crank arms.
I've had my Fuel EX 2018 for 3 years now. I've benefitted from fitting a token in my shock. This gave me more support in the middle of the travel and better bottom out resistance, whilst keeping some of the small bump sensitivity at around 30% sag. I feel this has helped with pedal strikes also. The reactiv shocks are that, reactive. In pedal mode it's quite good for most applications but it really opens up when you take a bit hit. Another case for having that token in there. So far this bike does everything I need it to. Trail.centres, bike parks, XC loops. I've cycles across Croatia on it. Here's to more years on the Fuel EX!
There’s a big difference between “things to hate” and “small inconveniences”, If this small things make you feel hate, don’t ride a bike, you’ll be frustrated soon.
I have the new fuel ex and luckily all of these problems are solved, I have 780 mil bars, Shimano brakes and xt drivetrain, the dropper is fine imo and the crank thing isn’t a problem in my experience.
Pedal strikes are a common problem, get shorter cranks and you will be good to go!! I agree on the brakes... Between sram and Shimano brakes I would pick Shimano every time. I haven't tried all the other brands yet, so my experience is limited. Also the stock dropper post has become a known issue, definitely need to switch it out, I run a one up v2. Just like every bike rider, we are all tweaking everything on them all the time to make them fit our riding style. I would love to see a follow up video with how you fixed all the things you didn't like and the components you found worked better. That would be awesome. (I am on a Ripmo AF and I have changed out for shorter cranks, grips, stem, handle bars, mud guard, front chain ring, larger back brake rotor, rims and hubs, tires, and longer seat post dropper. And I wouldn't say the bike had any problems, I just have my preferences.)
In this video you have your minolink in the low (slack) position ... if you flip it to high, your bottom bracket (and therefore pedals) will be RAISED 6-9mm, not lowered. Give it a try!
My fuel ex 8's bontrager dropper post work flawlessly, and I thought pedal clearance was great on 29ers. My biggest issue with the bike was creaking suspension pivots that I had to Loctite every few rides, and GX eagle being finicky. If re-designing the bike, I would add more mid-stroke and end-stroke support on the rear suspension and add more HSC to my grip damper in the front. Overall it was a great bike. Just got a 2021 Fuel Today.
Great video. I have a 2018 EX8. Hated the Guide R brakes because the plastic plungers would swell in heat and made the lever travel very slow to return. I replaced both plungers with aluminum plungers and now they work flawlessly! The worst thing on the bike is the drop line dropper post. It absolutely sucks. My question is where is the shock pump valve on the dropper post?? I have heard of that before but it seems to be an urban legend that it has an air valve!
As long as you get cranks that are compatible with your bottom bracket it’s an easy fix. Your bike probably comes stock with 175mm cranks, and you can easily drop that down to 165, or even 160 depending on the crank! I just ordered new shimano deore cranks, that unfortunately won’t fit my current bottom bracket, so I will have to have that replaced as well. But that’s only because I’m switching from sram to Shimano. And on that point I 10,000% agree that sram brakes suck. Too spongy and too loud!! Having switched to shimano deore xt one piston brakes, I would never choose sram over shimano. And wow those are narrow bars! My ‘19 xc bike has 740 bars on it.
Wide and short bars. Wide bars will put strain on your neck and shoulder joints. Narrow bars transfer the stress to your lateral muscles, mid and lower back giving you more power to pull and giving you a more relaxed ride. Wide bars give you more steering stability but less pulling leverage because only your shoulder muscles are involved and little back muscles. It’s a compromise. Too narrow and it gets twitchy too wide and you face possible shoulder injury and fatigue.
I upgraded from 640mm to 780mm bars and the difference is HUGE. I race dirt bikes so I prefer a tall and wide handlebar and I can’t stand riding anything else!
I’ve had both guide R and rsc... the latter are beautiful. he has a point on those normal guide. They seem to be long, and fairly useless if not set up to perfection
My 2020 9.8 is amazing. Absolutely can’t complain. This was my price point. I’d absolutely love the 9.9 but that’s out of my price range. First world problems.
Obviously you’d hate any bike. It helps to read the instructions and get to know the bike’s proper setup, before making a fool out of yourself online. Would help a lot to take some care of the thing too, bleed your brakes, clean and put some lube on the dropper etc
Obviously you are missing some parts of your brain. Instructions don’t have anything to do with this. Breaks should not need to be bled every three weeks, and that has nothing to do with the care I put into the bike. You can call me a fool all you like, but get back on your Walmart bike and keep your jealousy quiet.
I ride a large Trek Top Fuel, cut the bars to 740 because the trails where I live are very narrow (between the trees). Love 740's, can't stand anything wider.
Not to come across rude but. DUDE. How often do you get your bike maitnenced. it looks like your breaks do that because they are beaten and have scratches. most of these problems are because of you. get a custome bike if your made about that.
Totally agree with you bro on the guide brakes and the dropper post. I need to always pull-up my seat as its always stuck. It looks like im pulling up my balls everytime i need it up! 😂
Guide brakes! God they suck! My old guides nearly killed me when they locked up on steep terrain. I changed mine out for Hope Tech’s and it’s a massive upgrade.
The sram guides or useable if you clean the pistons and a bleed them roughly every two months and I have had three pars two warranty after seized just two months in
I have 2 treks (slash 2014 and fuel ex 2017) with mino flip-chips. Yours is in LOW position, dude. Try yourself, flippin takes 5mm allen and 1 minute of time (take a note - to uscrew you need to turn against the arrows on a chip)
I rented a DH bike once and the coil rear shock spring rate or rebound was set way too high that went over some rocks and I got throw from the bike Has this happened to anyone else before?
On the bright side your Sram brakes aren’t tooooooo powerfull last time I rented a DH bike and the SRAM brakes were powerfull AF i would slow down but the wheels won’t grip on the rocky surfaces so Thats why couldn’t stop with supper powerfull brakes
@@JakesBiking I remember now its called reach adjust I had the same-ish problem on my fuel ex and i used them and they fixed it. The reach adjust screws are like at the base of the lever.
Did you ever lightly oil the outside of the dropper post, or use a bit of silicone spray? Wide bars give your more balance (think tight rope walker with the long pole), skinnier bars make the bike more twitchy. I used to run 175's on my BMX, bought 160's to try because they had no 165's but I like the 160 on my BMX.
Man I love mine but mine came with shimano brakes, bontrager xr4 tires and I changed my dropper post to a pnw. I ride a med frame and for me it climbs really good
@@JakesBiking Your mino link is at low position on your video. You need to flip that link so the nut of mino link is on the upper direction to main frame.
For somekne who claims to know bikes enough to have a chanel about them, most of your points are completely garbage! 😂 Bar width... buy new bars, it's personal preference, brakes... Bleed them or get new pads, they're fine! And the dropper post is probably because you're not looking after it properly... 😳 You should be able to fix these without making a big deal out of It 😳😂
No. My points are very valid and I don’t need your validation. I’m saying things like bar length to warn people getting the bike new, bars are not cheap. The breaks need to be replaced, I take care of the bike better than you ever could…
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0:47 you have the Minow link set in the "LOW" position which lowers your BB If you're having issues with pedal strike I would suggest running the link in the high position thus raising your BB slightly.
Pedal strikes are due to rider error. Therefore, pedal strikes are optional.
Just stumbled across your video. I am not sure if this comment will ever be read but I had to leave something. I’ve never seen any of your other videos including the positive one about the EX8
I have a fuel EX8 and it is a very similar year to yours. Can’t tell if it’s exactly the same but very close!
I love it! It rides like a dream and I feel lucky to be able to ride it a lot. ❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏👍
When people ask me how I like it I tell them I love it and that is no BS
But I gotta say after riding in a while - 4 yrs now …..I do notice my pedals hit the roots a lot.
I wouldn’t say my dropper post sticks but I have complained about how far and hard I have to depress the lever it to activate it it’s tough!
The words “ The brakes are not great” have come out of my mouth.😎
To hear you say the exact combination of those 3 critiques blew my mind!!! I guess I’m not crazy after all.
Like I said you may never see this but I had to say something. Ill go check out your other positive review
I hope you’re still enjoying your bike as much as I’m still enjoying mine👍
I think you need to pay more attention to where your feet are positioned. Pedal strikes are rider error not bike issues. If it’s that bad go with shorter crank arms.
Definitely some rider error involved
I've had my Fuel EX 2018 for 3 years now. I've benefitted from fitting a token in my shock. This gave me more support in the middle of the travel and better bottom out resistance, whilst keeping some of the small bump sensitivity at around 30% sag. I feel this has helped with pedal strikes also. The reactiv shocks are that, reactive. In pedal mode it's quite good for most applications but it really opens up when you take a bit hit. Another case for having that token in there. So far this bike does everything I need it to. Trail.centres, bike parks, XC loops. I've cycles across Croatia on it. Here's to more years on the Fuel EX!
A video a week later. That’s a big step for me with the concussion! I think you will all enjoy my next video🍻
There’s a big difference between “things to hate” and “small inconveniences”, If this small things make you feel hate, don’t ride a bike, you’ll be frustrated soon.
I talked about that in the end of the video
I have the new fuel ex and luckily all of these problems are solved, I have 780 mil bars, Shimano brakes and xt drivetrain, the dropper is fine imo and the crank thing isn’t a problem in my experience.
Lucky! That sounds sweet.
Pedal strikes are a common problem, get shorter cranks and you will be good to go!! I agree on the brakes... Between sram and Shimano brakes I would pick Shimano every time. I haven't tried all the other brands yet, so my experience is limited. Also the stock dropper post has become a known issue, definitely need to switch it out, I run a one up v2. Just like every bike rider, we are all tweaking everything on them all the time to make them fit our riding style. I would love to see a follow up video with how you fixed all the things you didn't like and the components you found worked better. That would be awesome. (I am on a Ripmo AF and I have changed out for shorter cranks, grips, stem, handle bars, mud guard, front chain ring, larger back brake rotor, rims and hubs, tires, and longer seat post dropper. And I wouldn't say the bike had any problems, I just have my preferences.)
sick video bro, glad you’re making quality videos even without riding
Thanks! It’s nice to be making them and doing something I like🍻
@@JakesBiking yeahh man
I run sram guide rsc brake and there perfect, it sounds like you need your brakes bled
Yea, but mine seem to need a bleed every two/three months
In this video you have your minolink in the low (slack) position ... if you flip it to high, your bottom bracket (and therefore pedals) will be RAISED 6-9mm, not lowered. Give it a try!
i will! thanks!
My fuel ex 8's bontrager dropper post work flawlessly, and I thought pedal clearance was great on 29ers. My biggest issue with the bike was creaking suspension pivots that I had to Loctite every few rides, and GX eagle being finicky. If re-designing the bike, I would add more mid-stroke and end-stroke support on the rear suspension and add more HSC to my grip damper in the front. Overall it was a great bike. Just got a 2021 Fuel Today.
That’s sick! The new bikes see to have all the problems I have fixed. Happy shredding 🍻🤘🏻
Locative every few rides? That sounds annoying bro
Great video. I have a 2018 EX8. Hated the Guide R brakes because the plastic plungers would swell in heat and made the lever travel very slow to return. I replaced both plungers with aluminum plungers and now they work flawlessly!
The worst thing on the bike is the drop line dropper post. It absolutely sucks. My question is where is the shock pump valve on the dropper post?? I have heard of that before but it seems to be an urban legend that it has an air valve!
As long as you get cranks that are compatible with your bottom bracket it’s an easy fix. Your bike probably comes stock with 175mm cranks, and you can easily drop that down to 165, or even 160 depending on the crank!
I just ordered new shimano deore cranks, that unfortunately won’t fit my current bottom bracket, so I will have to have that replaced as well. But that’s only because I’m switching from sram to Shimano.
And on that point I 10,000% agree that sram brakes suck. Too spongy and too loud!! Having switched to shimano deore xt one piston brakes, I would never choose sram over shimano.
And wow those are narrow bars! My ‘19 xc bike has 740 bars on it.
That sucks! Would shorter cranks mess up the bike somehow? I don’t get trek with the 750 bars.
Wide and short bars. Wide bars will put strain on your neck and shoulder joints. Narrow bars transfer the stress to your lateral muscles, mid and lower back giving you more power to pull and giving you a more relaxed ride. Wide bars give you more steering stability but less pulling leverage because only your shoulder muscles are involved and little back muscles. It’s a compromise. Too narrow and it gets twitchy too wide and you face possible shoulder injury and fatigue.
Good points , what would you say is too narrow? My front door will only fit 700mm
I upgraded from 640mm to 780mm bars and the difference is HUGE. I race dirt bikes so I prefer a tall and wide handlebar and I can’t stand riding anything else!
Ex 8 2018 love it
150mm airshaft in the rythm fork and oneup 780mm bar.
2.6 butcher tyre it is like a mini slash.
My God!!! To buy a air pressured dropper post and not knowing you need to adjust it's pressure is comedy gold!!
My GODD!! Maybe I put air in it often, king smart @$$. BUT, it doesn’t last long and I have to pull it up with my hand.
I’ve had both guide R and rsc... the latter are beautiful. he has a point on those normal guide. They seem to be long, and fairly useless if not set up to perfection
My 2020 9.8 is amazing. Absolutely can’t complain.
This was my price point. I’d absolutely love the 9.9 but that’s out of my price range. First world problems.
Haha yup!
the difference between large and small bars is that large bars have more control and short have less short are used mostly on xc bikes
Thanks dude! Definitely think I should get some wider bars.
@@JakesBiking you should find more control if u get bigger bars
@@archieconlan7520 wonder if that would help with manuals. Hopefully
@@JakesBiking cant tell u i cant manual but it might idk
You’ll be more forward sitting on a longer bar. It could potentially make it harder to manual since you have longer reach
Riding trek fuel ex 5, in England. Lots of climbing, lots of descents, lots of cross country, it’s more than enough if you can ride a bike. 🇬🇧
Obviously you’d hate any bike. It helps to read the instructions and get to know the bike’s proper setup, before making a fool out of yourself online. Would help a lot to take some care of the thing too, bleed your brakes, clean and put some lube on the dropper etc
Obviously you are missing some parts of your brain. Instructions don’t have anything to do with this. Breaks should not need to be bled every three weeks, and that has nothing to do with the care I put into the bike. You can call me a fool all you like, but get back on your Walmart bike and keep your jealousy quiet.
Probably need more air in the rear shock too. This would cause suspension to sag too low.
Take a course. Those brake levers are adjustable with a nut near lever.
I ride a large Trek Top Fuel, cut the bars to 740 because the trails where I live are very narrow (between the trees). Love 740's, can't stand anything wider.
Go to a bike shop and tell them to bleed your brakes
Not to come across rude but. DUDE. How often do you get your bike maitnenced. it looks like your breaks do that because they are beaten and have scratches. most of these problems are because of you. get a custome bike if your made about that.
Well the breaks are scratched cause I ride the bike a lot…. They shouldn’t need a bleed every month or less.
Cable rattle, electrical tape or zip ties dude. If you mechanically inclined they can be shortened, from bars to frame .
zips ties are already on!
Totally agree with you bro on the guide brakes and the dropper post. I need to always pull-up my seat as its always stuck. It looks like im pulling up my balls everytime i need it up! 😂
Pulling up the seat sucks. And so do the breaks. Not sure which is worse 😳
It looks like those brakes need a proper bleed and fresh pads, nothing wrong with sram, mine work as should
Go to high setting in mino link to raise bb, and stop pedal strikes
You can by shorter cranks for your bike in different sizes
Good to know! I never knew, def gonna have to look into it
Guide brakes! God they suck! My old guides nearly killed me when they locked up on steep terrain. I changed mine out for Hope Tech’s and it’s a massive upgrade.
They locked up! Wow that’s not good… I’m def looking for new ones
The sram guides or useable if you clean the pistons and a bleed them roughly every two months and I have had three pars two warranty after seized just two months in
Exactly! They are really not good. That sucks they seized.
I don't think you're supposed to bleed brakes that often...
@@ridingwithpat7251 with the guides you have to or you will be pulling all the way into the bar
Great video I would love a workshop video some day
Thanks! I could def look into doing that
I have 2 treks (slash 2014 and fuel ex 2017) with mino flip-chips. Yours is in LOW position, dude. Try yourself, flippin takes 5mm allen and 1 minute of time (take a note - to uscrew you need to turn against the arrows on a chip)
Thanks! I thought it was in high. I’ll have to try it
do you run 27.5+ ? i also have a problem with pedal/crank strikes on climbs and technical sections .
Yea I do have that tire size!
@@JakesBiking i went with 165mm cranks and currently switching to 29ers . hopefully thatll fix it
Sounds awesome, tell me how it goes!!
I rented a DH bike once and the coil rear shock spring rate or rebound was set way too high that went over some rocks and I got throw from the bike
Has this happened to anyone else before?
I think getting bucked happens often. I’ve had mine to fast for larger jumps and gone nose heavy. Idk bout falling off 😀
Your brakes need bleeding and they need winding nearer to the disks.
My fuel ex is totally silent.
What pedals did you get, mine are terrible and look like they came off a Walmart bike🤣
Not sure the name, but they were bought from trek so I’d say Bontrager somethings
Get chester raceface pedals
@@ridingwithpat7251 I’ve heard those are good!
@@JakesBiking heyyyyy
i have them on my bike
My cranks are very low on my trek as well
Yea they are really low. Wonder if all Treks are like that.
And we all thought the trek fuel ex 8 was a good bike 😂
It definitely is a great bike, Just needs some tweaking!
On the bright side your Sram brakes aren’t tooooooo powerfull last time I rented a DH bike and the SRAM brakes were powerfull AF i would slow down but the wheels won’t grip on the rocky surfaces so Thats why couldn’t stop with supper powerfull brakes
Yea, I never thought about that. I’d think I would rather more power over less power. Definitely going to do a lot of research if I buy new breaks.
175 mm cranks?
I run sram guide and they are amazing!! Your brakes may need to be bled or you need to adjust your lever pull
How do I do the lever thing ?
@@JakesBiking Maybe you would not hate, but love, to know how to fix your own bike.
On your brakes have you used the adjusting screw thing for like lever reach or something I forgot what it was called.
Never knew that, ill look into it! thanks!
@@JakesBiking I remember now its called reach adjust I had the same-ish problem on my fuel ex and i used them and they fixed it. The reach adjust screws are like at the base of the lever.
the cable noise is it hitting the bars I am pretty sure.
I’ll check it out!
Did you ever lightly oil the outside of the dropper post, or use a bit of silicone spray? Wide bars give your more balance (think tight rope walker with the long pole), skinnier bars make the bike more twitchy. I used to run 175's on my BMX, bought 160's to try because they had no 165's but I like the 160 on my BMX.
I got a 2020. I feel like they fixed most of your gripe... haha. I love my bike. I ran my rear derailleur cable a little differently...
That’s awesome!!
I like the guides squishy, if I have the on off brakes I feel like I would fly off the bike , I only weight 138 lbs
I’ll take it my dream bike is sold out everywhere (fuel ex 8)
that sucks they are sold out
@@JakesBiking yeah I’ve been searching on all websites and I saw one at pro closet for like 2800 that is too much
Man I love mine but mine came with shimano brakes, bontrager xr4 tires and I changed my dropper post to a pnw. I ride a med frame and for me it climbs really good
Right on dude
Is there anyway you can change the cranks?
I’m not much of a bike mechanic so I am not sure 🤔 would be nice if I could. Idk if it would mess up the bike though
You can change the cranks on the bike just make sure that you have the right bb for the cranks
why u dont buy shorter Cranks ?
I didn’t know that you could until I made the video
Hey you ride the mino link in low
just curious, but where on that bontrager ine dropper, is your psi nozzle to put more air in it?
no idea to be honest. I think under the seat!
hay can you make a vid on jumping dubels i have a hard time with them
Me too! I can give it a try when I’m back to riding
@@JakesBiking ok are you feeling beter
@@mtbboy1095 a little, but I have a while to go.
Do u have ur feet down on the technical downhills?!
I was referring to climbing on a technical trail. I have a feeling it’s my lack of skill rather than low cranks
Um so everything you hate about the bike is user error ?
Nope with a capital NOPE
YEAAAH SRAM GUIDE series and SRAM product are expensive SH@t. Only problems with them and cost lot money!
Smart guy !!
Wait your 6ft tall?
Yup! You are not the only one who was surprised by that.
@@JakesBiking What! I thought you would have been at least 6'2 by now
Could be. Maybe 6’1. I think I’ve slowed down going up
Dude, you are complaining about pedals strike and low BB but you are running the mino link at low 😂😂😂.
nope, its' in the high setting. If you look at the frame you can see there only room to go down not up
@@JakesBiking Your mino link is at low position on your video. You need to flip that link so the nut of mino link is on the upper direction to main frame.
Privilaged people complaining about a bike i dream of, shame on you.
Brakes is Shimano, gears sram.
I hate my creaky ass seat post.
is this a parody o real review??? I honestly can't tell...dude.
Both
Pedal strike sounds like user error
Ikr
@jake I agree with you 100% everything sram is junk I got the same bike and that GX drivettain is trash
Exactly
How much sag are you running in the rear shock? If you don't have enough pressure you'll get a ton of pedal whack.
I kinda of over exaggerated how much I pedal smack 🤷♂️ but that’s a good idea, I think all add more air!
V brakes were the best
Want to fix your Sram brakes? Get Shimano brakes.
Sram Guide are junk, everyone I know that has them has poor experiences.
I think Sram has the best drive train though.
half of these are litterally self induced
Perhaps
my roscoe is a pedal smacker too
Trek issues 😐
@@JakesBiking not as bad as yours though
I think I made it sound a lot worse than it is in the video 🤫
No argument about SRAM brakes. Just pure spongy crap
Your brakes don't work because you need a bleed and new pads 😂
I’ve done both multiple times. They need to be bled every two months.
I will never buy another trek product
Interesting
You got air in your lines
How do I fix that.
dude, service your brakes lmao. all they need is a bleed, Maybe pads, and some brake cleaner on the rotors
can i have it plz
For somekne who claims to know bikes enough to have a chanel about them, most of your points are completely garbage! 😂 Bar width... buy new bars, it's personal preference, brakes... Bleed them or get new pads, they're fine! And the dropper post is probably because you're not looking after it properly... 😳 You should be able to fix these without making a big deal out of It 😳😂
No. My points are very valid and I don’t need your validation. I’m saying things like bar length to warn people getting the bike new, bars are not cheap. The breaks need to be replaced, I take care of the bike better than you ever could…
If you hate it , sell it daaaaaaa
Nah I like it
does he realize he can replace everything he talked about? lol
Does the commenter realize he doesn’t crap out money ? Lol
Sounds like mantmance issues
Kind of but not really
For anyone out there whos trying to buy this bike, just know that u can spend 150-200 more to get a yt jeffsy blaze with a lot better parts
Couldn’t have commented that two years ago when I got the bike 😐😉
@@JakesBiking lmao
Damn this dude is just bitter about this bike!
Kinda but not really
Shimano is superior
100%
Lack of knowledge about bikes created these hates.
Nah. Purpose was to help real people
not bike snobs who criticize everything. Bye.
Waaa waaa waaa
Its just overpriced piece of sh…t