REVIEWING THE NEW TREK FUEL EXE EMTB

eBIKE LIGHT REDEFINED

Words by Drew Rohde
Photos and Video by Brian Niles/Treeline Cinematic

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When we got word of a new game-changing lightweight eMTB, the Trek Fuel EXe, we were excited to see what it was all about. Admittedly, the mid-power eBike category, or eBike Light as we call it, isn’t our favorite. Our crew has converted to being full-power prophets, preaching that All Boost, All the Time lifestyle. It’s not that we don’t want a lighter and more playful eBike, we absolutely do. It’s just that when it came down to evaluating the available time to ride and the amount of mileage and vert we wanted to conquer in that time, the capabilities of bikes that had been available up until this point just didn’t compel us to give up the extra range (A.K.A DH time) of a full power eBike. After a couple of weeks riding Trek’s Fuel EXe new eMTB, it looks like it could be the first of the next generation eBike Lights to have us considering a switch. Let’s dive into the complete Dissected review of the new Trek Fuel Exe eBike.

For those riders (purists) on the other end of the spectrum – the ones who’ve resisted the E-side because they did not want the monstrous power, bulbous frame shapes and loud electric motor noise – the Trek Fuel EXe may once again be the bike that tempts you to make the switch. Let’s dive into why we think so.

As with all of our Dissected Features, this is not intended to be a long term review or endorsement of a product but is instead a chance for our viewers and readers to get a deep dive look into some of the newest tech and products in the mountain bike space. We thank Trek Bikes for the opportunity to create this feature and getting you some valuable beta on this new, lightweight eMTB.

Like any other bit of technology or product in the early years, just getting a product to market meant you were likely to be successful. However, as products, consumer demand and companies evolve, simply having an eBike that weighs less than 48lbs isn’t enough to lead the category these days. Riders want more, brands want more, and in this case, Trek’s own staff is full of riders who were motivated to build the eBike they wanted to ride…and so, the Trek Fuel EXe was born.

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL?

That in-house determination to build the eBike Trek’s own employees were dreaming of is what led to this unique and impressive machine. While there’s a lot of tech and features to talk about, some of which other bikes and brands can compete with, we’ll start with Trek’s ace in the hole – the deathly silent TQ HPR50 motor.

TQ is a German robotics manufacturer that has not only a wealth of knowledge in producing impressively complicated components, but also a very high percentage of staffers that are passionate about cycling. Their experience creating technology in use on the Mars Rover, for space travel, aviation, and daily consumer electronics has no doubt been an asset to the development of the Trek Fuel EXe. One component specifically – TQ’s patented Harmonic Pin Ring transmission, or HPR – was developed in TQ’s Drive department. The Drive department is a TQ-Group which is focused on creating the world’s leading drive systems and is a founding partner of the German Aerospace Center.

The Harmonic Pin Ring unit is what makes this drive system (and this entire bike) stand out. Made entirely in Germany, the TQ HPR50 drive unit is incredibly light at only 1,850 grams and delivers 50Nm of torque with up to 300 Watts of peak power. With just a couple of moving parts inside the HPR50 drive unit, reliability and efficiency are claimed to be huge benefits of TQ’s system. Similarly, the tone and sound, or lack thereof, are pleasant side effects. No gear lash: no belts to make noise or wear out; and fewer moving parts within the concentric design, should equal a long-lasting drive unit that we can’t wait to tally miles aboard.

SILENCE IN ACTION

One of the most impressive things we learned about the development of the Trek Fuel EXe emtb, was the acoustical science field and how important it was in refining the eBike. Many of you are likely familiar with decibels (db), or even sones if you’re an audio nerd. Rather than focus on those units however, Trek and TQ worked on tonality, which is a psycho-acoustic measure of how sound is perceived. Essentially, it’s a truer measure of the type of effects that the sounds you are hearing are having on you, the rider. For example, some ranges of sound can be more negatively perceived, even at a lower volume than a more-pleasant louder sound. For myself, the sound of a relentless chirp from a fan belt or the buzz of a lightbulb could be much quieter (db) than the purr of a V8 motor idling, but I can certainly tolerate one sound longer than the other.

What’s crazy is that according to Trek’s studies – and our experiences during the review – the new Fuel EXe is closer in the amount of perceivable sound to a regular mountain bike than any other eBike tested, light or full power. With a tonality reading of just over 0.1, the TQ HPR50 puts the Fuel EXe into the Barely Perceivable range, while other eMTBs range well over 0.4 up to 0.6 and therefore fall into the distracting range. We don’t like to be distracted from the ride, so this can only be a good thing.

TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATIONS

Being that TQ is a technology company, we shouldn’t be surprised that the integration of the display, corresponding apps and handlebar controller are impressively sleek on the new Trek Fuel EXe. The 2-inch integrated screen sits flush in the top tube and displays the vital information, which can be toggled to suit your preference. At the time of writing this feature and filming our video, neither Trek’s new Central app, nor the TQ app have been finalized to experiment with. However, we’ve been shown samples of the features and what can be done once connected, and we look forward to trying them out for ourselves. Everything from drive unit tuning through to range and trail estimation, and fitness tracking can be done.

Of course, on this top-of-the-line model, SRAM’s AirWhiz and TyreWhiz technologies come included, and SRAM’s app works quite well at allowing you to set up your preferred pressures, giving you a green or red light to indicate if your bike is ready to ride or needs some attention.

AVAILABLE MODELS

Trek will be offering the new Fuel EXe in their OCLV carbon only, with six build options at prices beginning at $6,499.99. All bikes will come with the TQ HPR50 drive unit, a 360Wh internal battery, and will work with a 160Wh range extender that can be purchased separately. We have received the $13,999.99 Trek Fuel EXe 9.9 XX1 AXS model for our Dissected Feature and will be using that to conduct our long-term review moving forward.

Model Builds are located at the bottom of this page.