Bike: ‘08 Trek Fuel EX 5.5
Tester: 23 years old; 151 lbs; “XC” dirt lover.
Where? Charlotte, NC & Pisgah, NC
This past weekend I woke at o’dark 30 and made the drive west to the mountains of Western North Carolina. There was a need to ride something with some type of elevation and the […]

I’ve had a few weeks to get the Trek situated and set up pretty close to where I ride my mountain bikes.  As I am a tweaker that setup is never permanent so there will be some changes as the months go by.

The bike probably has about 100 - 150 miles on it. All […]

Aligning a front derailleur isn’t too difficult once you get the hang of it.
1. Alignment of the cage. Some mechanics like to have the tail of the derailleur stick out a bit to help with the up shift. I align it pretty dead on and then play with the tail in or […]

A few tips when installing your front wheel.

Never touch your rotor if you have disc brakes!  I install my front quick release from the drive side for this reason.
Watch your rotor go through the caliper.  It is easy to damage your brake pads by stabbing the rotor edge into the pad.
Spin your wheel to make […]

It seems the more people are going to over sized bars the more bars I see cracked or too tight just waiting to crack.  There are two big things to remember about tightening your handlebars.
First is torque spec is your friend. Don’t muscle it or you most likely will strip out the head of […]

When you pick up your new bike from a local bike shop all ready to go there was a whole process that happened before it was ready to roll. This had to happen before you could get a fit, or even put your cheeks on the saddle. This process is called building […]