TREK FUEL EX | $7,500

THE QUINTESSENTIAL LETTERMAN ATHLETE—PULLING STRAIGHT A’S, PLAYING HOOPS AND RUNNING TRACK, WITH MANNERS PERFECT FOR MEETING THE PARENTS.

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Saying that a bike “disappears under you” can be viewed as either the highest form of compliment, or damning by faint praise. In the case of the Trek Fuel EX 9.9, we had to argue through the details to come to some agreement about where exactly this old adage washed out.

On the one hand, you’ve got a versatile, well-balanced 130-millimeter-travel bike that exists happily in the gap between XC and gravity sled; it has impeccable manners up and down the hill, is built with an eye toward the burly side of its limited travel and has a neutral, light feel backed by contemporary geometry numbers that err on the conservative side. It is incredibly easy to feel right at home on it, right away, regardless of terrain. On the other hand, the geometry isn’t as radically aggressive as other contenders in this category. It has a slacker seat angle, shorter wheelbase and 10 millimeters less travel than the Santa Cruz Hightower or Orbea Occam, and the component spec is aimed at functionality within a given pricepoint as opposed to luring buyers with shiny promises. In the words of one of our testers, “it’s a bit boring.”