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You know the name, you know the legacy, but do you know the story?
In a rented red barn in Waterloo, Wisconsin, five friends got together to hand build steel touring bicycles. The year was 1976, and the Trek Bicycle Company was born.
It was an era when the most popular bicycles were being built in Europe and Japan, yet only three years later, Trek had already gained a stellar reputation for passion and quality and gained a loyal following.
As their reputation grew Trek outgrew the old barn, so they built a new facility, this time in an old cornfield. The cycling world would never be the same.
Expansion
In 1982, Trek dove into road racing with their 750/950 series race bike. The move showed their commitment to pushing racing technology to new levels and proved their dedication to making fine bicycles for all cyclists.
And, a year later, with the sport still in its infancy and only a handful of companies making off-roaders, Trek joined the mountain-bike revolution with their 820, which was soon a best-seller.
Pushing the limits
Not one to rest on conventional technology, Trek released the revolutionary 2300 in 1987. The front triangle was made of a new material from the aerospace industry called carbon fiber. Two years later, Trek attempted to outsource a monocoque carbon frame that failed to meet their rigid standards. This failure instilled Trek with the determination to pursue carbon technology and control the entire manufacturing process themselves.
OCLV carbon was born, and by ’92, frames crafted with it exceeding aerospace quality
control, became the lightest production frames in the world and set the standard for American-made quality that would go on to make Tour de France history.
Meanwhile, in the dirt, Trek nabbed 10th place at the first-ever UCI Mountain-Bike World Championships under a young rider by the name of Travis Brown. Then, as the mountain-bike world explored full-suspension designs, Trek entered the fray with a simple, single-pivot bike, the 8900.
It became the official bike of the first Trek-sponsored mountain-bike team. And not to be left behind by its road-brethren, OCLV carbon hit the dirt with the lightest production mountain frame, the 9900—the year was 1993.
93′ would have another milestone in Trek’s mountain bike department when fat-tire pioneer and iconoclast, Gary Fisher joined the Trek family and brought with him the most popular name in off-road cycling. Trek embraced Gary Fisher’s ideas and in particular his love for the 29-inch mountain bike wheel. And today you’ll find a full line of Trek 29-inch mountain bikes including the first-ever, womens’ dual suspension 29er, the Lush.
Trek Superfly Full Suspension
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I bought this off a guy who was upgrading it has been great for what it was made for. Xc racing. ProsGood xc bike to start on ConsBad wheels Reply | Thank
My Superfly is the Superfly 100 al. The bike if fairly light at 29 lbs for being a 30 speed with an aluminum frame and full suspension. A lot of the weight is in the wheels and could be easily reduced. I converted over to a 1x setup and love it even more. The components were okay. x7 drivetrain and avid elixr brakes. The x7 is a good derailleur, not a great one. The brakes work but are a pain to bleed and get exactly right. The only real problem I had was with the casette either bending or warping and I started ghost shifting. This bike can take a lot of abuse and get back up no problem. I would even say I could do some light downhill on it with a shorter stem and wider bars. Overall it has done everything I ask of it and keeps on rolling. As for price, you can find these used all the time for sub 1500 in very good condition. The only thing I wish it had was a little more travel but seeing as how it’s a xc bike I understand they took away some plushness for more speed. I would recommend this bike to anyone looking for a good xc or trail bike. If are a racer this is a good start but might recommend the carbon versions. If you are an aggressive rider that wants to hit it jumps and rocky difficult sections, I would suggest something with a little more travel. ProsFast Lightweight (for the setup) Great suspension Great value ConsComponents could be much better Bottle cage locations are not the best Missing iscg mount and an adapter won’t fit a press fit bb. Custom ordered a clamping iscg adapter from South Africa and it still did not fit. Reply | Thank
I would recommend this bike because it is a really fun bike to ride. It is great for XC racing. It has a light and nimble frame with good choice of component sets. ProsThis is a very nice bike and it has many nice features such as the G2 Geometry. The frame is very aggressive for XC riding and will do well for the trail. ConsI felt that the angle of the frame made it seem like the wheels were quite heavy and hard to maneuver. (Bulky if you will). It might be my history with 26 bikes. Reply | Thank
A solid enough build, but the saddle made the already pretty harsh ride unbearable. If you don’t mind the punishment as a trade-off for speed, a decent choice. ProsFast, fairly light, decent parts ConsSub-par wheels, horrible saddle, a little heavy for an XC bike Reply | Thank
Trek Top Fuel 8 geometry
Despite being marketed as a downcountry bike, the Top Fuel looks more like a modern trail bike on paper. Russell Burton / Our Media
If you looked at the geometry figures in isolation of the suspension travel and website sub-menu, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a totally modern 140mm trail bike. The head angle is fairly slack at 66 degrees, while the seat angle is claimed to be 76 degrees. That’s not super-steep, but when your rear end sags less thanks to the reduced travel, its dynamic seat angle should still be pretty pert. I also measured my test bike, with saddle 71cm above the bottom bracket, at 77.1 degrees – steeper than claimed. The reach is impressively long at 480mm – a number I’d expect to see on some of the best enduro bikes. This combines with mid-length 435mm chainstays to give a wheelbase of 1,215mm. The 450mm seat tube is short enough that longer-travel droppers should be within reach of most riders. The size-small bike has a 395mm seat-tube length, for reference. These figures are for a size large (or 19.5in that Trek also gives) in its low setting. The numbers are similar for the small, medium, medium-large, large, XL and XXL – an impressive spread of sizes. The Mino Link geometry chip is also provided, which steepens angles by 0.4 degrees, and adds 5mm to the reach. For the purpose of this review, I kept the bike largely in its lower setting.
Trek Top Fuel 8 specifications
The bike is specced with RockShox suspension components front and rear. Russell Burton / Our Media
Trek has gone to RockShox for the suspension on the Top Fuel 8, with its SID fork stood up front and a Deluxe Ultimate RC at the back. The shock has three main compression modes, from open to firm, as well as three settings in the open mode for even more fine-tuning. The most open of these options gives a really light feel to the shock, while the most closed feels very close to the middle setting of the shock, with noticeably more compression damping. Historically, the SID has been a pared-down XC race fork, and the SID SL still holds that baton. The SID Select, though, is one of the new-generation burly XC/downcountry/light-trail forks that feature lighter-weight chassis, packing in extra stiffness thanks to 35mm (or 34mm in the case of the Fox 34) stanchions. It maxes out with 120mm travel, and on this model Top Fuel we get the base-level fork that uses the OEM-only Rush RL damper. With 120mm of travel, it feels stiffer than a 34, but perhaps not quite as stout as a Pike. The damper might be bottom-end, but it’s still smooth, and remarkably well controlled, with plenty of progression and little in the way of spiking.
Shimano is used for the drivetrain, with a mixed group of components. The 30t ring sits on a Deore crankset, an SLX chain tugs on a cassette from the same range, while the shifter and derailleur come from the XT family. Four-piston non-series brakes from Shimano complete the package. When it comes to wheels, tyres and finishing kit, Trek’s in-house Bontrager components feature heavily. This includes the Line 30 Comp wheels, shod in 2.4in-wide XR4 Team Issue tyres, and an alloy cockpit.
Trek Top Fuel 8 ride impressions
This bike was tested as part of our 2022 Trail Bike of the Year test. It was pitted against seven other bikes, with travel ranging from 120 to 140mm at the rear, and priced from £3,299 to £3,950. The bikes were tested all over the UK, from long, steep tracks in South Wales to our regular testing loops in the Forest of Dean, fast rocky tracks in Scotland’s Tweed Valley and the fresh-cut loam and rocky outcrops of the Cairngorm National Park. Bikes were tested back to back, with short repeated loops ensuring differences were easily noticed. An extensive programme of workshop weighing, measuring and general poking about meant every little detail was explored. I knew the Top Fuel was going to be a good ride from the minute I slung a leg over the 120mm-travel, alloy trail bike’s low-slung top tube. Its geometry felt right from the off, the spec list is up to the task and the suspension is all kit that I’m well versed in testing. It’s easy to look at the bike from afar and assume this is just another downcountry rig, with its SID fork and short-travel figures. It wasn’t until I’d fired it over some jumps, nosed it down the odd steep chute and slung it through my test loops’ berms that I realised the Top Fuel is, simply put, a bloody brilliant trail bike.
Trek Top Fuel 8 climbing performance
Stab the lever that raises the unremarkable Trans-X dropper, chunk yourself precisely (thanks to Shimano’s excellent shifting even under power) into the biggest cog on the SLX cassette and the Top Fuel climbs like a sticky mountain goat. The steep seat angle for a short-travel bike is helpful, positioning your hips further forward and centred over the bottom bracket, helping to keep the front wheel planted and pedalling efficient. When combined with the low 30x51t gearing, you can comfortably climb almost anything (traction permitting).
The Bontrager XR4s are a little slick for damp off-piste conditions, with a rounded profile and shallow tread blocks tending to skate over the surface rather than dig in. However, if conditions are dry, they happily transfer power through their mid-depth treads. The trade-off is they roll fast and are communicative on the limit, letting go predictably. They provide acceptable grip on surfaced trails and leaf mulch, and don’t drag on tarmac. The shock lockout lever on the Super Deluxe has an uncomfortable-to-operate indexed notch, which snaps open unpredictably, making it feel agricultural to use (especially with cold fingers). However, it does provide a severe but effective platform when climbing. In contrast, the SID Select fork lockout is a rather spongy affair.
Overall, the geometry and crisp Shimano shifting mean it’s easy to winch your way up to the top of a peak. It does lack the taut eagerness of XC-derived downcountry rigs such as the Scott Spark, which strain at the leash to attack every climb, whereas the Top Fuel prefers to lope along comfortably. As downcountry bikes go, the Top Fuel’s forward pivot position, placid anti-squat curve and overall build are swayed toward delivering incredible overall performance and stable, low-effort climbing rather than scintillating polka-dot-jersey-esque uphill sprints. Furthermore, its 14.8kg weight separates it from the most dedicated downcountry bikes, which likely shed a kilo or two. However, view it as a trail bike, and it knocks the socks off most traditional trail bikes when pointed up a hill.
Trek Top Fuel 8 descending performance
Point it downhill and the flickable chassis is easy to manoeuvre: if you’ve felt over-biked and sluggish on a 140mm trail bike, this is the answer. Whereas some downcountry bikes are XC race rigs on steroids – devastatingly efficient on trail-centre loops, but unwieldy descenders – the Top Fuel feels as though Trek has tautened and lightened its Remedy trail bike. Again, look at it as a trail bike, rather than a downcountry bike, and you’ll appreciate that its quality, not quantity, of suspension that often does the bulk of the work when it comes to descending, especially when backed up with really good geometry and decent kit. While the Top Fuel lacks athletic fervour, it feels exuberant and cheeky, goading you into manuals and riding the trail playfully. With predictable cornering manners and progressive-feeling rear-suspension kinematics, thanks to its forward pivot point, this bike is devastating on the descents.
How does the Trek Top Fuel 8 compare with the YT Izzo Core 2?
In terms of a light and fast machine for tackling less technically demanding trails, the YT Izzo Core 2 seems like the obvious comparison. Both bikes give a spirited fight on the climbs. The Trek is perhaps a little perkier, with a taut back end that doesn’t waste your watts. The Izzo might not be quite as stable as the Trek under pedalling pressure, and the lockout is a pain to access, but the Maxxis Forekaster tyres zip along with minimal resistance, really making the bike fly up climbs. Add in a supple early stroke that helps generate grip, and I found the Izzo gave me little to complain about uphill. Despite very much coming from the downcountry side of things, the Top Fuel 8 is a ripper on the descents. The tyres play a massive part in this, with a more pronounced shoulder tread than the Forekasters on the Izzo. This makes the Top Fuel much more confident when pushing hard on mixed surfaces. The suspension is a bit of a toss-up here. Fox’s 34 Performance fork on the Izzo is a smooth operator, while the SID feels a little more aggressive in its damping. At the back, though it has less travel, the Trek seems to deal with repeated big hits a little better, though I’d say the Izzo is smoother on low-amplitude chatter.
Picking a 120mm downcountry bike as our trail bike of the year may seem odd, but I think it’s justified. Russell Burton / Our Media
Picking a 120mm-travel bike as my Trail Bike of the Year took a bit of soul searching. The diversity of bikes available aimed at the trail rider is as broad as the trails on which they’re ridden.
But the Top Fuel stole my heart (if not my head) in 2022. A trail bike needs to do it all – climb well, descend with authority, and ask to come back for more and more. The Top Fuel gets to the top of the hill without making us yearn for our XC rigs, made me grin like a Cheshire cat on fast flow trails and rarely baulked when gradients steepened and a firm grip on bar and brake lever was required to safely navigate to the bottom.
If you want a bike to do it all and trust that it’s quality, not quantity of suspension that does the bulk of the work, give a shorter-travel, more agile bike a shot – you probably won’t regret it.
How Do I Choose A Good Trail Bike?
Suspension travel
The amount of suspension travel your bike has will directly affect how it performs on different kinds of terrain.
Conversely, if you’re constantly hitting rock gardens and roots, you’ll want a bike with more suspension travel to help absorb the impacts.
Wheel Size
Most trail bikes come equipped with either 29″ or 27.5″ wheels. 29ers have become increasingly popular in recent years, and for good reason. They roll over obstacles more easily and maintain their speed better on rough terrain.
However, they can be a bit tougher to maneuver in tight situations. 27.5″ wheels strike a good balance between the two, offering nimble handling and improved rolling ability.
Geometry
The geometry of a bike refers to the lengths of the different tubes that make up the frame, as well as the angles at which they’re joined. It’s what gives a bike its distinctive shape and affects how it rides.
Trail bikes tend to have relatively long wheelbases (the distance between the front and rear wheels) for stability at speed, while still being maneuverable enough to navigate tight turns.
They also tend to have relatively slack head angles (the angle between the front wheel and the frame) for enhanced control on descents.
Components
The components on your bike are just as important as the frame itself. A bike with high-end components will perform better and last longer than one with lower-quality parts.
When it comes to trail bikes, look for a bike with a durable drivetrain (the chain, cassette, and crankset) and strong brakes.
The suspension components (forks and shocks) are also worth considering, as they can greatly affect the ride quality of the bike.
Weight
A lighter bike will be easier to pedal and maneuver on the trail, while a heavier bike will be more durable and better able to handle rough terrain.
However, weight is only one factor to consider. A heavier bike with high-end components will still perform better than a lighter bike with lower-quality parts.
Budget
As with anything, you get what you pay for when it comes to trail bikes. A higher-priced bike will usually have better components and a lighter frame, while a lower-priced bike will usually have lower-quality parts and a heavier frame.
That said, there are plenty of great trail bikes available at all price points. It’s important to find a bike that fits your budget and riding style.
How Much Should A Descent Trail Bike Cost?
You can find a decent entry-level trail bike for around 450,000. These bikes will have features that beginner and casual riders need, such as suspension forks and disc brakes.
A good mid-range trail bike will cost between 450,500 and 5000,500. These bikes will have higher-end components and better suspension than entry-level bikes.
They’re also usually made with lighter-weight materials, which makes them easier to ride on technical trails.
The sky’s the limit when it comes to high-end trail bikes. You can easily spend 3,000 or more on a bike that has top-of-the-line components and features.
How Much Does A Quality Mountain Bike Weigh?
A quality mountain bike can weigh anywhere from 22 to 35 pounds. The weight of the bike will depend on the materials used to construct it and the type of bike you purchase.
Mountain bikes are available in different sizes and styles, so it’s important to choose the right one for your needs.
If you’re looking for a lightweight mountain bike, you may want to consider one made of carbon fiber. Carbon fiber bikes are typically very light, but they can be more expensive than other types of mountain bikes.
If you’re looking for a durable mountain bike that can handle rough terrain, you may want to choose one made of aluminum. Aluminum mountain bikes are often heavier than carbon fiber bikes, but they’re also more affordable.
s:
My name is John and I am an avid cyclist. I started cycling when I was a child and never stopped.
I have been riding bikes for over 20 years now and have never gotten bored with them.
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