Trek Top Fuel 9.9 2019 - Dissected and Analyzed

My Race Bike for 2019

At the beginning of 2018 I got hold of a used Trek Top Fuel 9.9 RSL (2017) sort of by chance. For the first part of the year I raced it in parallel with my Cube SLT (2017) and I was able to compare the two. During previous seasons I've raced a number of different full suspension top-of-the-line bikes so I've built up a good base for reference. The way that the Top Fuel stood out was that it handled roots, rocks and minor obstacles better than any other full susp that I'd ever ridden. This sort of behavior is important for me as I try to minimize my energy usage. The more that I can sit down and just spin the pedals, the more efficient I am. If I have to get off the saddle then I'm wasting energy.

Trek Top Fuel 9.9 2019

This led to me making the decision, for the first time, to race the same model in 2019. I ordered a brand new Trek Top Fuel 9.9, model 2019.

There are some differences between the 2017 and 2019 model: Rock Shox SID fork (still Fox in the rear) and Bontrager Kovee Pro 30 wheelset are the major changes.

Weight and Optimization

Now naturally I couldn't leave the bike as it was. It's fun to optimize, right?

Note that I've focused on optimizing unsprung and rotating weight.

The Wheels

Putting the wheels on the scales first produced a bit of a surprise:

Weight of Kovee Pro 30 wheelset with rim tape and tubeless valves

That's sort of heavy... But I did notice that the rim tape looked sort of massive. I needed to look into that. First I couldn't find a way to get it off but then I noticed that by peeling it gently off from the valve hole I could remove it. The original tubeless valves were not the light kind either.

World's heaviest rim tape?

Let's weigh the wheelset again:

Weight of Kovee Pro 30 wheelset without rim tape and valved

Wow! That's quite the difference! 155 grams lighter! And were below 1500 grams which is respectable for a wheelset with extremely wide rims - 30mm!!!

Let's put on some normal rim tape and light tubeless valves:

Weight of Bontrager Kovee Pro 30 with light rim tape and tubeless valves

Right around 1500 grams. That's good! Again note the extremely wide rims.

Race Wheels - Duke Lucky Jack

I will be doing most races on my Duke Lucky Jack wheelset which weighs in at 1280 grams.

Brakes

Standard SRAM brake discs:

Were replaced by light Ashima ones:

Axles

Standard axles:

SRAM axles without handles:

I realize that these are no massive weight savings but I do them for two reasons:

1. The handles are practical when removing the wheels but they can get stuck on things like rocks or roots and vegetation.
2. They're relatively cheap!

Unoptimized stuff

Some stuff that I did NOT optimize (yet?):

Does anyone want to sponsor me with some light parts? :)

 

Tires

I've opted for Schwalbe Racing Ralph / Racing Ray 2.25 Snakeskin. This is a combo that's good for the kind of stages races that I will do in the mountains this year. They weigh in at just a smidgen over 600 grams. For Swedish marathons I will run lighter tires, specifically Schwalbe Thunder Burt 2.1 Snakeskin in the rear. So that will shed about 100 grams of weight.

Pedals

I got my hands on the new Shimano XTR 9100 pedals. They came in at 314 grams:

Total Weight

The weight with the standard Kovee Pro wheels and wide Schwalbe tires comes in at 9.83 kg. This is race ready with Shimani XTR pedals (310 grams), bottle cage and Garmin out front mount.

With the Duke race wheels and lighter tires the weight will come to approximately:

9.5 KG

My 2017 Race Bike: Cube AMS 100 C:68 SLT 29 Zeroblack

The bike that I will be racing the 2017 season on is...

Cube AMS 100 C:68 SLT 29 Zeroblack

Wow! That's a long name! Here's Cube's promotional photo:

Cube's page describing the bike

I first got interested in the bike when I read some articles about it last Autumn. The talking point was the weight: 8.9kg! Wow! Even Cube's site states the weight at:

When I finally got the bike delivered (it was almost 2 months late) I checked it out and weighed it (without pedals obviously) and it came to....:



Now that's more than 8.9 kg! Okay, so mine is the 20" frame and perhaps the smaller frames are a bit lighter. But I seriously doubt that they'r half a kilo lighter. Also keep in mind that Cube supplies these bikes with very light tires: Schwalbe Rocket Ron 2.1 Liteskin in front, and Thunder Burt 2.1 Liteskin in the rear (weighing in at about 500 grams and 400 grams respectively)

Losing Weight

The wheels are really light at 1300 grams.

BUT they are not real Boost wheels, they just use adapters. Which is a bit of a disappointment.

I tubeless converted the wheels

Got rid of some very heavy rim tape:

The tires that I mounted are Schwalbe Rocket Ron 2.1 Snakeskin which weigh in at 550 grams each. Most marathon races I will use a Schwalbe Thunder Burt 2.1 Snakeskin at the rear which is 50 grams lighter.

The brake disks are light, but You can save almost 100 grams by going with Ashima. I have purchased a couple of Ashima ones which are going on the bike.

The saddle is all carbon fiber, no padding... and VERY light!

The seat tube is just a regular carbon one... not particularly light

Same for the handle bars... not that light.

I replaced the handle bars with with one from Bike Ahead and saved about 100 grams. Also it looks nicer

The grips are foam grips but HEAVY. I replaced them with my own ones

So I mounted some light pedals, a bottle cage and Garmin mount. And the weight came to...

The Final Verdict

9.42 kg

Remember the original weight was WITHOUT pedals, and with Liteskin Thunder Burt in the rear. So I've saved perhaps some 300-400 grams.

But How Does the Cube Ride?

It's a very nice bike. I've ridden four races on it now and it feels very quick. I was surprised that I felt that I could trust the bike at once lean into turns. It's very quick to react and feels more like a XCO bike than an XCM bike.

When it comes to damping performance my BMC Fourstroke is a lot more subtle and goes better over roots and rocks. I'm not sure if this is because the Fourstroke has the old Fox CDT shocks which have three different settings, the new one has the Fox Stepcast with only two modes. Or if it's because of the different geometries of the two bikes. The Cube is half a kilo lighter than the BMC.

Another difference is that the Cube feels lighter in the front than the BMC Fourstroke does. That's a good thing obviously.

I'm still working on adjusting and trimming in the dampers on the Cube so that part could get better with some more experimenting.

Here's just a bunch of photos of the bike

2016 - New Team and new Bikes: Scuderia BikeItaly BMC

Scuderia BikeItaly BMC

I'm joining a new team for the race season of 2016: Scuderia BikeItaly BMC (blogg). Our two main sponsors is the Swiss bike manufacturer BMC and our local bike shop BikeItaly. The team has some great riders whom I will be mentioning in my reports. My partner, Sandra Backman, is also joining the team.

The season's two race bikes will be BMC TeamElite 01 XX1, which is BMCs new "softtail" and a full suspension BMC Fourstroke XX1

Weather conditions in Sweden have not been the best so even though I got the full susp in December and then the softtail in January I've had just a couple of rides on each and the snow and mud have made it hard to get a good impression. This weekend, however, under relatively dry conditions, I was able to take the Fourstroke out for two marathon sessions, four and five hours respectively.

The BMC Fourstroke XX1

I wasn't sure what to expect from this bike... This is my third full-suspension race bike. I have gone from racing an Specialized Epic S-works in 2014, to a Trek FS Superfly SL in 2015, and now to the BMC Fourstroke XX1. So I do have some reference points.

On Saturday's marathon ride it took all but 30 minutes before I had totally fallen for the bike. I was IN LOVE. Perhaps you're thinking: "Well, of course you're in love with your brand new shiny top-of-the-line bike.". But it has not always been like this. When I switched from the Epic to the Superfly my first reaction wasn't positive. The Trek turned out to be great, but at first it felt a bit slow to turn in and somewhat dull to ride. So all I'm saying is that change doesn't always feel positive for me... not at once at least.

The Fourstroke is a superb bike. My immediate reaction is how supple it is on the downhills and through turns. It inspires confidence. You want to lean the bike into the corners and let it just do its thing. There's a special section that I have on my local course where there's a trail going downhill over some serious pumps and then turns through a couple of tight turns. In order to get through the turns with speed the bike has to be ballanced over the bumps. If the bike starts bouncing around it gets light and you lose traction. The Fourstroke absorbs the bumps perfectly and allows me to lean the bike into the corners with maximum grip. No other bike that I've ridden there has felt as surely planted.

Thank you BikeItaly for supplying me with this lovely bike.

The BMC Teamelite XX1

The BMC Teamelite 01 is BMC's new "softtail". This means that the rear flexes a little bit. So you get a slightly heavier frame (just 100 grams or something) in exchange for a more compliant ride.

My Teamelite is the 01 Shimano XT version because the XX1 version (which is painted red) sold out. In a way I'm happy I got the XT version because I'm told that the paint is lighter! What I did with my bike was to replace the Shimano XT groupset with a SRAM XX1 groupset. I like XX1.

With the Teamelite you get three different kinds of bushing to use in the back. They all have different stiffness. I first tried the medium one but quickly switched to the soft one. The flex in the back is not noticeable when climbing or accelerating but you notice it absorbing the impact of bumps. It's not like a full suspension bike where you can sit down through everything but it smoothes out some of the roughness of the terrain.

The other thing that's special with BMC is the short stem (and therefore longer top tube). It makes the bike very quick to steer and it feels very nimble and also fun to ride. You through it into turns and it reacts immediately. 

So far I'm really happy with the Teamelite. I still haven't raced it so I am still looking forward to that experience and what insight into the bike that it will give me.