Trek Fuel EX C Project One Carbon 29r Mountain Bike Frameset, Generation 5, L, Orange

I cracked my 4 year old Trek Fuel EX carbon fiber frame landing a smooth jump and Trek refused to honor the warranty, claiming it looked like a rock must have hit my frame where it cracked. Two different bike shops (including the one that sold it to me) were in disbelief, as it was an obvious failure that had nothing to do with getting hit by a rock. Trek offered to sell me the latest version of the frame at a 20% discount…thanks for nothing. It was going to cost me $3K, plus the price of switching the gear over, and would be back ordered until January. I vowed to never buy a Trek bike again, but you never know if your gear will fit a different frame. I randomly found this company offering the same model frame for $900, and figured it was too good to be true. But it appears to be the real deal, and I just got it back from the bike shop looking good. I haven’t had a chance to hit the trails as the snow has fallen here in Utah, but the shop had no concerns. Like I said, I’ll never buy another Trek product again if I have a choice, but thank you Wheel & Sprocket for saving me a few thousand bucks.

Awesome deal

Not my first color choice but turns out the color is amazing and I really like it. I built an emtb last winter but it was a hardtail. I wanted more of a dirt bike feel so this should more than do the trick. I will also put a more powerful motor on it - CYC X1 Pro Gen 4, compatible with carbon frames. I have a Santa Cruz Blur currently but an XC mtb coverted to emtb won’t work for me. When shopping for this purpose I was amazed to find this frame. I wanted a carbon frame $1200 and under which was mostly the used market. I was able to get a new 2023 Rockshox delux select+ for $110. I bought the Knock Block Headset Lockring Spacer so I could use whatever spacers and stem I wanted. The rear shock mounting hardware and other incidentals to get this thing in shape was prob $300. So a complete frame kit to my spec cost me $1350.

Trek still sells this frame for $3800 on their website, and you can't get this colorway. There were orange models produced, but they were a lighter orange and grey, not this beautiful radioactive orange(?) and deep pearled black from Project One. I'd have to call this a $5,000 frame if you were putting a Trek price tag on it, so to snag it for $900 is just absolutely wild.

The disclaimer makes it sound like you're going to have to source a ton of stuff, but really it's not that bad. It has the Mino Link stuff, has the UDH, has the armor plates... So you're really just sourcing some of the shock mounting hardware, a headset, frame storage cover, cable routing covers, etc. If you download the MY2020 Fuel EX Carbon manual from Trek it's easy enough to source this. I even found a lot of the stuff like the headset half price on eBay brand new. (IS-2-HBS $34 rn on eBay) -- even if you walk into a dealer and go $200 deep on small parts, you're still getting a crazy deal. The pictures on the site are exactly what you received, so you can spot the missing stuff.

Unlike the built Project One models, this one doesn't say Project One on the seat stay, but I managed to find a replacement vinyl on Etsy in white that I am applying there. It's cheap and a small touch that's nice to add.

My serial decides to an October 11, 2022 production date. Trek as far as I can tell, isn't really offering the Project One options for their Mountain Bikes anymore.

This all feels a little disjointed and ADD, but I'm really just trying to provide info I would have enjoyed having before purchasing. I'm so incredibly happy with it and Wheel and Sprocket got it to me in 3 days.

This is allowing me to build out a Fuel EX 9.8, in a custom color, for less than $3500. I know a nice Trek like this is a trail flex, but at the price point, why would I pick something else?

Love it! Package 📦 came quick and is what i expected. Perfect 👍🏽