2013 Fuel EX 9.8 here. I did not purchase the bike, but I am the first and only registered owner of the bike on Treks website. My bike was silent without any creaks or noises for years. Then about four years ago I was hearing a creaking noise that developed and would sometimes come from underneath me when there was a lot of suspension travel but my carbon fiber frame and magnesium link looked fine. My LBS checked out my bike and did a full tear down during a yearly service and saw nothing wrong with it. A little over a year ago my link just cracked and while not doing anything special like jumping or dropping. It finally just broke riding a lazy ride down a small hill with a few tree roots on the trail. I guess that after all of these years it had finally had enough.

I haven't ridden this bike (my favorite bike) in a year because I cannot find the part to replace it. For now I am currently saving for the 8-10k to get a brand new custom Trek Fuel Ex that will be my ultimate new bike, but even then i will still want this one to be restored.

The bike got me through some tough times that could have ended me had I not had it as an outlet. I absolutely do not want to retire it due to the sentiment it brings. I would rather keep in in service perhaps riding it a bit more carefully and sparingly here in the future. I need options to find a replacement part, fabricate a part, repair the old part etc. Anyone have any ideas or solutions?

Thanks,

Vash

List of Edits:

Edit: I just want to note that the E-Bay listing for Trek Session Pivot will not work for the Fuel EX model. Thanks to all who suggested that I try it, but it and any other pivots are incompatible with my Fuel EX. As far as Trek was telling me, the 2013 and 2014 Fuel EX series were the only bikes to carry the same geometry and mounts on the pivots. After that they changed the geometry and pivot composition to make it stronger and pivot slightly differently. Any other models or years will not work for the bike which is what has made this such a frustrating year of dead end searches.

(Edit: I had to edit my final paragraph because some idiot decided it would be nice to make fun of my military service and disability which I had previously shared.)

Edit: I had written a long second paragraph which was a description above of my interaction with Trek support and I was confused about why they would not warranty my pivot. A user pointed me out to the warranty information and apparently the pivot is only covered for two years. Trek support never told me any of this. They just said that they did not make the part or have it in stock anymore. Had I known that the pivot was not considered a part of the frame and not covered under warranty I would not have written the lengthy paragraph describing the situation. I have removed that paragraph so that only relevant information to solving the dilemma of fixing, replacing my pivot is displayed.

Edited to add more context 7/24/26 since I figured I could answer some questions by just being a bit more detailed in my OP.

Picked this up at a goodwill near Canton Ohio for $10 restore or part out ? Don't know much about it, any info would be helpful. Pacific yx8500 model

I ordered 2.5" tyres for my dh bike but i now see etrto of 55, that's really narrow imo, how come a 2.15 inch and a 2.5 inch can be the same size is there something im missing?

Does anyone have any tips just so you all know I only had 2 hours at this place never done a flip and I am 14 is my technique good ?

Hi everyone,
I’m a 38-year-old rider from Romania and I’m looking for real experiences from people who have had this surgery.
I have a long-standing scaphoid nonunion (around 10 years old) that has progressed to SNAC wrist with arthritis. I’ve seen two experienced hand surgeons, and both believe that reconstruction of the scaphoid is no longer a good option because of the arthritis and carpal malalignment.
The recommended surgery is:
Scaphoidectomy
Four-corner fusion (midcarpal fusion)
Internal fixation with screws
My biggest passion is enduro and downhill MTB. I don’t race professionally, but riding is a huge part of my life.
I’d really like to hear from anyone who has had this surgery.
Were you able to return to MTB?
How long did it take?
How much wrist motion did you keep?
How does the wrist handle rough trails, drops and braking?
Would you choose the surgery again?
I’m not looking for medical advice, just honest experiences from riders who have been through it.
Thanks a lot!

This is a question ive been thinking about for a long time, but never really done much research on. Could you in theory combine enduro/DH parts with XC/trail parts to find a good balance at an all mountain bike? For example, take a light weight mid travel XC bike, maybe 140/130 or 130/120 and add enduro tires and heavier parts to increase downhill performance?

Or on the other hand, a long travel bike with lighter parts to make climbing more reasonable?

Im sure this has all be done before, and i bet its fairly common to use downhill parts on a xc frame, but what's the actual practicality here?

I could just be making stuff up, but id love some actual input, because I'm considering enduro tires on my xc bike to make it more of an all-rounderv because I only have 1 bike.

I want to transport my mountain bike without disassembling it, and I want to do it internally inside a vehicle, not on a rack externally (for security). I want to be able to stop by a restaurant after a ride and get a bite to eat without it getting stolen.

I also would like the vehicle to be able to go into parking structures and park. So nothing too tall or too long.

Is a van the best bet?

Ford Transit with low roof and short wheelbase maybe?

With the new trend and possible normalization of reverse offset stems, I came up with a few solutions to try these stems out without breaking the bank with the only real option right now being the BMB RR stems costing 400-500 dollars. Originally I designed my own reverse stem in a CAD program and was going to have an online CNC service make it for me, but before committing I tried to look for DIY options that wouldn’t be as much money.

I had the idea of reversing my stock stem, which would set the offset at -40mm, which was extreme. I looked for shorter direct mount stems to run backwards and was only able to find 2 options that would work without setting the handlebars too far back.

Here are the stems that I found:

https://a.co/d/0dF4TVlt

—35mm clamp
—30mm offset (-20mm when set in reverse)

While this stem is technically a cheapo Chinese stem, I’ve had fifty fifty products before and the quality is similar to that of raceface and other budget brands. AKA their products are strong enough for most riders.

https://www.deitycomponents.com/micro-dm-stem-30.html

—31.8mm clamp
—30mm offset (-20mm when set backwards)

I wanted to go with this deity stem as it was more authentic but I do not own any 31.8mm handlebars and did not want to spend extra money on them. This stem is most likely better than the fifty fifty stem weight and strength wise.

You might ask how these stems are -20mm backwards and 30mm forward. Shouldn’t they be -30mm? Actually the mounting bolts for direct mount stems on a standard crown are 10mm in front of the steerer tube, making the stem closer to the steerer tube when running it backwards and further away when running it forward.

If you want the same effect as a BMB stem, you might also want to go with riser bars and possibly upping your stack height, it won’t be the exact same, but it should be close. I will most likely try out 50-60mm riser bars if I end up liking this set up.

Looking at this bike. He is asking $3250 cdn, is this a good price or too high? looks in great shape. Has yari front shock , fox dps rear shock and sram no. What do you think?

Hi, I've been riding Blue and lately Red trails for a few months now. I have a question about what you do if you come across other people when you're in between sections of trails.

It's usually empty when I go, but the last couple of evenings I've come across people (in bike clothes, so I know they'll be faster) and said something like "Would you like me to wait, or go ahead? I'll probably be slower than you". My question is, is there an established rule? And if their isn't, what do established bikers think of as polite?

(I know about pulling over to the left when being overtook, this slows us all down though)

Hey all, just finished building a Marin Alpine Trail XR. In regards to forks, I have an older 2022 model Rockshox Zeb Ultimate with the 2.1 damper. How does this hold up against newer forks? Im still relatively new to the sport but confidently charging black diamond runs and say I have a good feel for suspension coming from a motorbike racing background. I got the fork for $300aud and questioning whether its worth the squeeze to upgrade to a 3.1 or 3.2 zeb in the near future. Pic of the marin for attention

We pedaled in the tea mountains ⛰️ of Rwanda and it is cool and rainy over there. Did not expect that!

I got my first full suspension bike this week after riding a hardtail for the last year plus. I ordered it online, and I am not experienced or knowledgeable enough to know what is ideal or what could/should be adjusted. I don't know what I don't know.
I will be in Brevard mid-September to ride DuPont for a long weekend, and I am curious if a professional fitting at a place like Squatch (I only pick them based on how often they come up when talking MTB shops in Brevard) is worth the couple hundred bucks.

In my mind, I am thinking wrestling/bjj where minor adjustments in grips or positioning can make a huge difference. But maybe I am wrong, and the $ is better spent on good beer or a full-face helmet?

So for anyone who is not an advanced or high-level rider and has had a professional bike fit completed: yay or nay? And why?

So I recently purchased a polygon siskiu D5 for a really good price although the front derailer keeps catching on my jeans leg. It’s fine they were old but I have started to wear shorts do the hole doesn’t get any bigger. But I noticed leg doesn’t catch so it’s most likely dies to them being ever so slightly baggy. Can I remove it untill I save up for a 1 by up front can I safely remove the front derailer and put the chain from the big one to the small one manually if needed? Is this a good idea and is this at least semi-normal “issue”

I apologize for my horrible grammar and spelling on most things I’m not sure how to edit a post to add pictures if yall ask so if yall do expect a comment of a new post with pics unless yall give instructions to do so. Also i understand this account is brand new i just created a new account

I’ve been riding the Laufey for the past three seasons and decided I wanted to add a full suspension back into the mix. Found this 2022 top fuel 8 XT for a good deal and it legitimately looked brand new. It even had the dork disc snd reflectors on it.

I wanted to build a shop but I'm a college student and have to move too much so I decided to do a more portable option

All in it's only about 42 pounds so while it's definitely not a EDC bag, but it's light enough to be easily thrown in my car.

Now I just need some friends who need their bikes fixed so I can use it

I'd love to gets y'all input on what I should add or remove, while I've worked in a bike shop I'm still new to the home shop stuff