The '917' Fuel EX 29
This is not a review. And given that the all the fuss right now is about the new 27.5" wheeled Fuel EX rather than the biggest wheeled version pictured here, this can't even be labeled as one of those ubiquitous "First Look" pieces that seems to make up about eighty percent of all mountain bike content on the internet. So then, what the heck are you reading? This particular Fuel EX 29 is my slightly gaudy yet unabashed take on what I would come up with if someone told me that I could whip up a paint scheme of my choice with little restriction... which is exactly what happened when I was given free reign of Trek's Project One program earlier this year. Project One lets you choose not only the components on your bike, but also the paint scheme, all of which can be applied to the Superfly FS and hardtail platforms, as well as both carbon and aluminum Fuel EX 29ers.
There are ten different paint layouts to choose from, along with a massive amount of colours to ponder if you decide to go with the five-colour 'Funk' design, all of which was enough to see me waste (my boss's words, not mine) a few eight hour work days putting together about thirty different virtual examples on the Project One bike creator. Oh, and you also get to come up with a short bit of text in one of three fronts to have put on the bike's top tube, conveniently enough where one might want their name, not that I went that route. Trust me, people expect you to go really, really fast if you have your name on your bike, and I'm much more interested in getting a bit sideways and having fun than doing the former. The cost? It all depends on how wild you want to get, but totals should range between $3,500 - $12,500 USD for a custom bike.
What's Project One?
Are you a mountain biker? You're here so of course you are, which means that you've almost certainly daydreamed about what you'd come up with if you could assemble your dream bike. And that's the exact gist of Trek's Project One. It starts with paint choice, which I discovered is a far more difficult thing to settle on, but extends to nearly every component on the bike. This allows you to assemble a machine that best suits your needs, terrain you spend time on and, most importantly, create a machine that makes you bite your lower lip every time you see it in your garage. The latter will be mostly down to paint choice, but in order to tick off the other requirements you are able to select everything from what type of drivetrain you want spec'd, including chain ring size and crank length, to things like grip choice and if you'd like a standard bottom bracket or a fancy ceramic version.
Factor in wheelset, tires, headset, stem and handlebar, along with the seat post, seat and nearly every other component, and you have enough choices to cause someone prone to dithering to have a small stroke. And that doesn't even factor in the biggies like fork and shock preference, or if you want handlebar mounted remotes or no extra clutter. It's not a free for all on the options list, though, as you are limited to components that match the frame's intentions. And, not surprisingly, this includes a number of Bontrager options, but you are still able to tailor the spec to your liking.
The second helpful bit of information is that you can't just order up your Project One bike, send off a cheque to Trek HQ, and then expect UPS to drop it off a few days later. Just think of all the mis-sized and oddly spec'd bikes out there if that was the case. No, you have to finalize the important things like fit, gearing, stem choice and payment with your local Trek dealer, which means that a proper shop will be looking after you rather than you trying to put the bike together in your garage with a small multi-tool. Best to leave it to the pros.
The '917' Fuel EX 29er
Choosing the components to hang off of the bike was easy enough, at least for me, given that I've been lucky enough to spend a considerable amount of saddle time on pretty much everything out there. It took all of two minutes to figure out that I'd want a SRAM XX1 drivetrain with a 36 tooth chain ring, along with a set of XTR Trail brakes to slow me down, and most certainly not a single remote lever on the handlebar save for a Reverb button on the underside for my left thumb to operate. The paint was a different story, though.
I have about ten different black jerseys, a few different black helmets, and at least four or five pairs of shorts that range from light black to dark black, so you can take a guess as to where my mind was going. Gloss black with matte black highlights? Yes please. Matte black with gloss black highlights? Even better! And then, as I was sitting there curling my toes in excitement, my eyes drifted away from the computer screen to the rather expensive, utterly useless, and yet entirely needed model of Porsche's legendary 917 sports car racer that I keep on my desk. Suddenly finding myself staring at the model isn't anything out of the ordinary, to be honest, due to it being one of the most beautiful race cars ever assembled, and its light blue and orange Gulf Oil livery is enough to have any motorsport fan sigh in acknowledgment in the way you might do if you were to cross paths with a young Audrey Hepburn (trust me, Google it). And while I was born about fifteen years too late to be able to see the 917 fight for glory, I'm also far from being the only fan to swoon over its lines - it is, without a doubt, the most recognizable and celebrated race car ever made, at least by people in those kinds of circles. So that settled that, it was to be a 917 themed Fuel EX 29er.
That said, we did have a brief hiccup when a rather spectacular high-side crash saw me do my best scorpion impersonation into a minefield of rocks in Utah. Rider error was to blame, as it always is, and while I was battered and bruised, it was the Fuel's seat stay that took the brunt of it. A damaged stay was the result of a direct rock strike that likely would have been fatal regardless of the frame material, and a replacement was required. Not ideal, no doubt about it, but the severity of impact with the rock gave the Project One program a chance to step up - would I get a new seat stay in the mail that matched the 917 theme, or would the replacement part forever look odd and mismatched? It was dead-on, as it turns out, and the 917 Fuel EX 29 was rolling again after minimal downtime.
The Legend of the 917
NASCAR and Formula One rule the roost when it comes to television ratings and popularity these days, but there was a time when sports car racing, and especially endurance races where cars are shared between two or three drivers and on track for anywhere from six to twenty four hours, commanded just as much attention. These days it's referred to as the World Endurance Championship, but back then it was more of a collection of different races of varying lengths that made up a cobbled together international endurance racing scene, with the grand daddy of those events being the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The French race is still the endurance race that everyone wants to win, and while Porsche has the most victories of any manufacturer who's contested Le Mans, with sixteen in total, they had yet to take their first crown when the 917 was debuted in 1969. The car's first appearance at the race couldn't have gone worse: of the three that were entered one was written off in a massive accident that killed the driver, while the other two suffered mechanicals that saw neither of the remaining cars cross the finish line. It was not an easy birth.
Being a bit enamoured with an iconic racing car is one thing, but using it as inspiration for your bike's custom paint might be a few steps too far given that there's certainly nothing wrong with taking the expected approach and going with a more subdued colour choice. After all, the truth is that I would have been pretty damn stoked with a blacked-out Fuel EX 29, and it would have been the safe way to go about things in the long run. However, deciding upon colours that mean something to you certainly adds an intangible element to the bike that's hard to explain to someone who doesn't feel the same about what appears to be just a simple paint job, which is exactly what a custom painted bike should do for you.
Photography by Colin Meagher
There are ten different paint layouts to choose from, along with a massive amount of colours to ponder if you decide to go with the five-colour 'Funk' design, all of which was enough to see me waste (my boss's words, not mine) a few eight hour work days putting together about thirty different virtual examples on the Project One bike creator. Oh, and you also get to come up with a short bit of text in one of three fronts to have put on the bike's top tube, conveniently enough where one might want their name, not that I went that route. Trust me, people expect you to go really, really fast if you have your name on your bike, and I'm much more interested in getting a bit sideways and having fun than doing the former. The cost? It all depends on how wild you want to get, but totals should range between $3,500 - $12,500 USD for a custom bike.
 |
 Black might never go out of style but isn't it a bit of a cop-out if you've got near endless colour combinations to choose from? I wanted something more unique. |
What's Project One?
Are you a mountain biker? You're here so of course you are, which means that you've almost certainly daydreamed about what you'd come up with if you could assemble your dream bike. And that's the exact gist of Trek's Project One. It starts with paint choice, which I discovered is a far more difficult thing to settle on, but extends to nearly every component on the bike. This allows you to assemble a machine that best suits your needs, terrain you spend time on and, most importantly, create a machine that makes you bite your lower lip every time you see it in your garage. The latter will be mostly down to paint choice, but in order to tick off the other requirements you are able to select everything from what type of drivetrain you want spec'd, including chain ring size and crank length, to things like grip choice and if you'd like a standard bottom bracket or a fancy ceramic version.
Factor in wheelset, tires, headset, stem and handlebar, along with the seat post, seat and nearly every other component, and you have enough choices to cause someone prone to dithering to have a small stroke. And that doesn't even factor in the biggies like fork and shock preference, or if you want handlebar mounted remotes or no extra clutter. It's not a free for all on the options list, though, as you are limited to components that match the frame's intentions. And, not surprisingly, this includes a number of Bontrager options, but you are still able to tailor the spec to your liking.
The process is actually almost overwhelming, especially if you're going all-out and plan on pressing the 'go' button on an ultra-expensive dream machine, but two things should help calm the nerves. First, the Project One creator actually puts the bike together, virtually, of course, right in front of your eyes. This gives you a real-time look at what you've got cooking, possibly saving you from deciding that blue and brown would look great together on a carbon fiber Fuel EX (I think I was drinking when I combined those two and nearly sealed my fate), and also updates the cost of it all on the go so you don't end up disappointing yourself at the end when you find out that the real price of your new bike is your child's post-secondary education. Hey, we all have to make sacrifices, right?
The second helpful bit of information is that you can't just order up your Project One bike, send off a cheque to Trek HQ, and then expect UPS to drop it off a few days later. Just think of all the mis-sized and oddly spec'd bikes out there if that was the case. No, you have to finalize the important things like fit, gearing, stem choice and payment with your local Trek dealer, which means that a proper shop will be looking after you rather than you trying to put the bike together in your garage with a small multi-tool. Best to leave it to the pros.
 |
| The Project One creator first has you choose the platform, then the paint, and finally the spec. Then it's off to your local shop to sort out the details. |
The '917' Fuel EX 29er
Choosing the components to hang off of the bike was easy enough, at least for me, given that I've been lucky enough to spend a considerable amount of saddle time on pretty much everything out there. It took all of two minutes to figure out that I'd want a SRAM XX1 drivetrain with a 36 tooth chain ring, along with a set of XTR Trail brakes to slow me down, and most certainly not a single remote lever on the handlebar save for a Reverb button on the underside for my left thumb to operate. The paint was a different story, though.
 |
| My 917 themed Fuel EX 29. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea but, then again, a custom bike never should, should it? I didn't want to take the safe route, and I most certainly would be a bit disappointed if everyone liked my colour choices. |
I have about ten different black jerseys, a few different black helmets, and at least four or five pairs of shorts that range from light black to dark black, so you can take a guess as to where my mind was going. Gloss black with matte black highlights? Yes please. Matte black with gloss black highlights? Even better! And then, as I was sitting there curling my toes in excitement, my eyes drifted away from the computer screen to the rather expensive, utterly useless, and yet entirely needed model of Porsche's legendary 917 sports car racer that I keep on my desk. Suddenly finding myself staring at the model isn't anything out of the ordinary, to be honest, due to it being one of the most beautiful race cars ever assembled, and its light blue and orange Gulf Oil livery is enough to have any motorsport fan sigh in acknowledgment in the way you might do if you were to cross paths with a young Audrey Hepburn (trust me, Google it). And while I was born about fifteen years too late to be able to see the 917 fight for glory, I'm also far from being the only fan to swoon over its lines - it is, without a doubt, the most recognizable and celebrated race car ever made, at least by people in those kinds of circles. So that settled that, it was to be a 917 themed Fuel EX 29er.
No, neither the blue or the orange are a perfect match to those iconic Gulf Oil colours, but they are close enough for me to both get stoked when I see the bike and to be able to cite its inspiration. I'm not the only one who has taken note of the colour combination, either, with a number of strangers approaching me on the trail to tell me that my "Gulf bike" looks quite good. It's been said that black is timeless, but I have to say that there's something about this blue and orange that will always strike a chord in me, even if the closest I'll get to seeing a 917 in action is watching YouTube clips over and over again. And how does it ride? Well, it's a 120mm travel bike that weighs bang-on 25lb, is equipped with lightweight wheels shod with high-volume tires, and sports a short stem, wide handlebar, and a dropper seat post... in other words, it's a hell of a lot of fun on the trail. I like to refer to bikes like these as cheater bikes because they can perform at levels that approach that of a pure cross-country bike on the climbs, yet won't punish you as much on the downs. The best of both worlds? Sort of, although a real cross-country racer
will want to be on something even lighter and firmer, and a truly aggro rider might want more travel. But for me and how I ride, which is often a little bit sideways and more than a little bit irresponsible, my vision of the ideal Fuel EX 29er works well. That said, we did have a brief hiccup when a rather spectacular high-side crash saw me do my best scorpion impersonation into a minefield of rocks in Utah. Rider error was to blame, as it always is, and while I was battered and bruised, it was the Fuel's seat stay that took the brunt of it. A damaged stay was the result of a direct rock strike that likely would have been fatal regardless of the frame material, and a replacement was required. Not ideal, no doubt about it, but the severity of impact with the rock gave the Project One program a chance to step up - would I get a new seat stay in the mail that matched the 917 theme, or would the replacement part forever look odd and mismatched? It was dead-on, as it turns out, and the 917 Fuel EX 29 was rolling again after minimal downtime.
The Legend of the 917
NASCAR and Formula One rule the roost when it comes to television ratings and popularity these days, but there was a time when sports car racing, and especially endurance races where cars are shared between two or three drivers and on track for anywhere from six to twenty four hours, commanded just as much attention. These days it's referred to as the World Endurance Championship, but back then it was more of a collection of different races of varying lengths that made up a cobbled together international endurance racing scene, with the grand daddy of those events being the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The French race is still the endurance race that everyone wants to win, and while Porsche has the most victories of any manufacturer who's contested Le Mans, with sixteen in total, they had yet to take their first crown when the 917 was debuted in 1969. The car's first appearance at the race couldn't have gone worse: of the three that were entered one was written off in a massive accident that killed the driver, while the other two suffered mechanicals that saw neither of the remaining cars cross the finish line. It was not an easy birth.
 |
| The 917K in Gulf Oil livery that lives on my desk and served as inspiration for the bike. Countless hours have been spent staring at it, and even more watching footage of the real thing. It looks dramatic just sitting still, doesn't it? |
Porsche slowly began to sort out the 917's shortcomings and, with much help from customer teams who purchased their own 917s to race, the car slowly became competitive as more and more versions spawned from the development. Outright power was never an issue, with the last variant of the car's twelve cylinder engine putting out a mind bending 1,580 horsepower with the help of two turbos and some increased displacement. That's roughly 500 horsepower more than today's Bugatti Veyron, and even topped the output of more regulated Formula One cars of the same era (and about twice what they currently put out these days), all during a time when safety was more of an afterthought than anywhere close to being a priority. Drivers back then were all about bravado, had balls the size of a POC helmet, and no one complained about a lack of run-off area or a little bumping and grinding with competitors on track. Which is why it's all the more astonishing that a handful of top factory drivers refused to race the 917, citing its unsuitability at high speeds - it was that much of a brute. How fast would the car go? It was said to have hit an astonishing 395 kph on one occasion, which translates to 246 mph. Aerodynamics at speed caused it to take sketchiness to new equally new heights, though, and drivers of the car now openly talk about how it was simply difficult to keep it pointed in a somewhat straight line at speed. Regardless, the many different versions of the 917 were very successful, with the short-tailed 917K in the Gulf Oil colours taking a number of important victories, including two wins at Le Mans. Wins aside, it was the fictitious 'Le Man's' movie that introduced the 917K to the general public in 1971, with American actor Steve McQueen driving it in the film and cementing the car's blue and orange livery into the minds of race fans and casual followers alike.
Being a bit enamoured with an iconic racing car is one thing, but using it as inspiration for your bike's custom paint might be a few steps too far given that there's certainly nothing wrong with taking the expected approach and going with a more subdued colour choice. After all, the truth is that I would have been pretty damn stoked with a blacked-out Fuel EX 29, and it would have been the safe way to go about things in the long run. However, deciding upon colours that mean something to you certainly adds an intangible element to the bike that's hard to explain to someone who doesn't feel the same about what appears to be just a simple paint job, which is exactly what a custom painted bike should do for you.
Photography by Colin Meagher
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static.cargurus.com/images/site/2008/04/26/15/34/1968_ford_gt40-pic-33984.jpeg
Either way its still a GULF scheme but I'm a gt40 fan over the Porsche
Nice choice though, looks great.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Lola_Aston_Martin_DBR1-2_Spa_2009.JPG
www.bibipedia.info/media/oboi/8/oboi_Aston_Martin_AMR-One_LMP1_2011_001.jpg
festivalofspeed.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/dbr9frt.jpg - aaaah, the good old DBR9, such a nice car. Too bad GT1 class got way too expensive
cdntbs.astonmartin.com/sitefinity/news/vantage-gte---sebring.jpg - coplete with an Akrapovič exhaust! (Slovenia!)
images.thecarconnection.com/lrg/97-2013-aston-martin-vantage-gte-with-crowdsourced-livery_100430807_l.jpg - last years Le Mans special livery. Not as iconic, still nice though
cdn.probikeshop.fr/images/products2/388/88602/600x600-88602-cadre-production-privee-the-shan-of-hazzard-10.jpg
The Trik's nice and all, but it's been done, and I thnk better, with this thread over at Retrobike. Check out this dude's Gulf colour pit set up. Even the ladders get the full treatment.
www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=165888
.
img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/waking_up/DSC01836.jpg
Is 99' a few years back now? I don't know if this counts as copying a theme.
And I'm not claiming that mike copied it, just that those are the correct colours and the colours on the trek aren't even close.
s7d4.scene7.com/is/image/TrekBicycle/?layer=0&src=is{?layer=0&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_brakes_xtr&layer=1&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_tires_29_4&layer=2&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_wheels_rhythm_pro&layer=3&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_shock_fox_float&layer=4&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_frame_skyblue_1&layer=5&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_funk_decal_white_1&layer=6&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_raorange_2&layer=7&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_white_3&layer=8&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_carbon_armor_chain_guard&layer=9&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_stem_xxx_black&layer=10&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_rocker_white&layer=11&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_saddle_evoke_rxl_white&layer=12&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_brake_levers_xtr&layer=13&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_components_xx1&layer=14&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_grip_bont_double_black&layer=15&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_headset_cc_white&layer=16&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_fork_rockshox_rev_rct_white&layer=17&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_seatpost_rockshox_reverb&layer=18&src=TrekBicycle/29ex14_rockshox_decal_silver_2&cache=on,on}&qlt=90&&fmt=png-alpha&wid=1920&cropN=0.0025,0.0025,0.995,0.995
As for the Porsches, sure, the 917 is nice, but for me personlay nothing gets close to the 962C. Okay, maybe the 919 Hybrid, but you can't say anthing about the pedigree of the 962C (and the 956 as it's twin brother basicly - the 962C was a Can-Am rule abider, that put the dirver's feet behind the front axle, the 956 was simmilar in layout to the 917 in that regard). The 956/962 pair was also the first proper Porsche where they understood ground effects
Yeah, the paint is not ideal, if i saw it out in the wild i wouldn't think of Gulf colors i think, the blue is too dark and metallic and the orange is a bit too dark/red, as has been said. But kudos for going with such a bright color. We need more bright bikes and cars!
Check them out on youtube as well. They rebuilt the turbos on a 1972 917/10, and then road tested it up and down Scott's Valley Drive before getting on the freeway for a few miles...1000HP six million dollar race car just cruising down the street.... youtu.be/0GGzWxYFggE
img11.hostingpics.net/pics/741053photo.jpg
www.pinkbike.com/photo/10542955
ep1.pinkbike.org/p5pb7910783/p5pb7910783.jpg
Although in certain light, the pale blue is almost white.
m.facebook.com/244631164897/photos/pcb.10152482450074898/10152482440439898/?type=1&source=49
www.google.co.uk/search?biw=360&bih=302&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=5aDYU6eNCKrK0QXdnYGQCw&q=baum+corretto+gulf&oq=baum+corretto+gulf&gs_l=mobile-gws-serp.3...7893.9486.0.10222.5.5.0.0.0.0.347.1065.0j4j0j1.5.0....0...1c.1j4.49.mobile-gws-serp..4.1.346.NoCWNVMmEqQ#facrc=_&imgrc=pLk6uaOh13jr2M%253A%3BGXRWbYc9gkdLYM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fruedatropical.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2011%252F04%252Fcutsom-Gulf.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fruedatropical.com%252Fpage%252F12%252F%3B500%3B1118
Anyone remember back when pb used to do actual stories about things like actual custom paint?
www.pinkbike.com/news/Tippies-Custom-Painthouse-2014-Rocky-Mountain-Flatline.html
www.pinkbike.com/news/painthouse-airbrush-helmet-2008.html
I think SC had a similar scheme with pit set up in the 2012 season as well
www.pinkbike.com/photo/11241746
PLEASE HAVE A LOOK A THIS, this is a Gulf Theme :
fotos.mtb-news.de/p/1658758
www.mtb-news.de/news/2014/07/11/neues-von-trek-remedy-29-carbon-lush-275-und-boost-148
There will also be a Trek Fuel version of this !
www.carsbase.com/photo/Audi-90_IMSA_GTO_mp4_pic_68054.jpg
This car dominated in a field where everything else had more horsepower and greater top speed. Far ahead of it's time when it
showed up on the scene.
pds.exblog.jp/pds/1/201401/16/07/b0246207_1834051.jpg
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a href="http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=955182photo.jpg">img src="http://img11.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_955182photo.jpg" alt="Heberger image" />/a>
Sorry, no. My dreams include hero dirt, perfect berms and a lot of free time for riding.
Whoops, far cry from an f1 car guys!
Now do Martini colours please!