“If you had to pick between the full power Trek Rail or the lighter Trek Fuel EXe, which would you choose?” “What’s the difference in battery range?” “How many miles can I go?” These questions, and many like them, are some of the most frequent inquiries in our KZfaq comments section, DMs, and emails. Whether it is a question about the Specialized Levo vs Levo SL, Pivot’s Shuttle or Shuttle SL or even the Orbea Rise vs Orbea Wild, we figured this head-to-head test between the Trek Rail vs the Trek Fuel EXe would be at least a good starting point to helping present information and our thoughts on which bike we would prefer, and why.
When it comes time to answering these questions, we often reply to the inquiry with questions of our own. Some of those questions are: Do you as a rider, want a bike that is lighter and more playful, but will not go as far, or would you sacrifice the light weight and playfulness for the ability to ride further, or ride the same distance as a lightweight eBike faster? Do you want to reach sections of trail you would never have been able to before or do you want to ride your usual loops just a bit quicker? Some folks prioritize self-shuttling themselves up the steepest climbs as fast as possible to maximize downhill laps, like Drew for example. Other riders, like Sean, would rather go slower on the climbs or shorter distances under power, but have a more lively and “mountain bike” experience that comes with a lighter eMTB.
To test our theories and review which bike we would pick, we took our Trek Rail and Trek Fuel Exe to our local test loops to see what our differences in range would be and which bike we liked riding more. The goal with this experiment was to see how many laps we could finish before the battery dies and how much time it took to drain them and combined that with our downhill lap times and perceived “Feel” of how fun each bike was. We rode both bikes exclusively in Turbo/Boost mode, because we are about that #allboostallthetime life.
THE DETAILS
TREK RAIL 9.9 XX1 AXS
Motor: Bosch Perf. CX Smart
Torque: 85nm
Battery Size: 750wh
Bike Weight: 51.9 lbs
Travel: 150/160mm
Price: $13,799
TREK FUEL EXe 9.9 XX1 AXS
Motor: TQ HPR50
Torque: 50nm
Battery Size: 360wh
Bike Weight: 41-lbs
Travel: 140/160mm (upforked from 150mm)
Price: $13,999
THE TRAIL
Miles per lap: 2.3miles
Elevation: 868ft per lap
Climb Terrain Type: Steep Singletrack / Steep-Steeper Fire road | loose, rocky over hardpack
Descent Terrain Type: Steep, loose over hard pack / shale stone
THE RESULTS
We have had both the Rail and Fuel EXe in our test fleet for a long time, so we will be using our personal experiences over a wide variety of terrain to speak to the feel of the bikes while also using this particular range test as the data for our takeaways from the test period we have had. Each lap on this test loop has a mix of flat, higher speed singletrack, some tighter, more technical singletrack as well as steep and ultra-steep fire road tech. Once at the top all routes down are very steep, loose, and chunky rock singletracks with plenty of obstacles and tight switchback turns.
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