Trek Fuel owners

[El Chupacabra]

I'm looking at maybe buying a used Trek Fuel 100 - wondering if there are any known problem areas on these bikes? (bushing life? stress cracks in common points? rear shock options?) Basically is there anything to watch out for that's specific to these bikes. I haven't seen the bike yet, so don't know what parts are original and what's been replaced. It's supposed to be XTR (don't know if full gruppo), SID fork (don't know which one), and misc other details, but basically sounds pretty well all high-end parts.

Also checked this out:
http://tetongravity.com/forums/showt...ight=trek+fuel
If that bike were still for sale, I'd jump on it.

-Karl

[assgasorgrass]

My advice; buy a Titus.

[snow_slider]

I would be very concerned about the leaky stanchions comment. If they are scratched, that would suck.

Trek Fuel 100's have a history of cracked linkage plates and chain stays. At least they did a few years ago. I don't know if Trek has addressed the issue. I know two people who have cracked either the linkage plate of the drive side chainstay. One guy has gone through two chainstays.

Other than that, it is a really good bike.

[El Chupacabra]

I would be very concerned about the leaky stanchions comment. If they are scratched, that would suck.

Trek Fuel 100's have a history of cracked linkage plates and chain stays. At least they did a few years ago. I don't know if Trek has addressed the issue. I know two people who have cracked either the linkage plate of the drive side chainstay. One guy has gone through two chainstays.

Other than that, it is a really good bike.

Thanks - that link was to a bike for sale here last year, not the one I'm going to be looking at.

Re: cracked linkages/ stays -- for the people you know who had these problems, did Trek take care of it under warranty?

-Karl

[snow_slider]

Yep, Trek was very good to them. Replaced the bikes with teh current year's model.

They did question my one buddy who was returning his second frame, but he was straight with Trek and didn't give them a "I was just riding along" story. He told them he was riding some very technical stuff with 3-4 foot drops. Trek said, "ok, cool" and replaced the frame.

[El Chupacabra]

Thanks. I should be checking out the bike in the next few days.

-Karl

[bagtagley]

I was riding the shuttle at Snowshoe w/ a guy who was on his 5th (no exageration) Fuel frame. He said Trek was good about warrantying the frame, but that he was getting sick of being w/o a bike. He said he liked the bike, but when he got some money he was going to upgrade to something beefier.

He wasn't a big guy. He also didn't appear to be a very aggresive rider.

You also see breakage stories all over MTBR and Ridemonkey. I'm not trying to be discouraging, because from what I gather it's a really nice ride. However, I'm always weary of stuff that breaks.

[El Chupacabra]

Hmm.. better check what Trek's warranty is too...

-Karl

[snow_slider]

Definitely check the warranty out first. Many bike company warranties don't transfer to resale bikes. If you're the second owner of the bike, you're not covered by the warranty.