mtalinm

my LBS trek dealer told me he was told they would never build a Domane Disc. pissed b/c I bought a non-disc Domane.

oh well, I should probably swap for a Boone anyway. Domane clearance isnt' enough for fenders, even though it has the fender mounts :-(

Weatherby

6.9 Domane with discs if it really has clearance for 28mm might be interesting for those who are heavy and who ride in the rain on very steep roads. Like me. Bikes have become so ugly. Does anyone make more hideous looking bike than Trek? Disclosure: I own a Trek.

softreset

I've worked in sales on and off for years and long enough to know that unless you're high up in the food chain to see the product road map, you know squat about what's coming down the pipeline. Plus, any half decent sales rep will subscribe to the basic principle of: Sell What's Available Today.

It's very unlikely that your LBS trek dealer has insight into Trek's product roadmap. Plus, even if they did, they're most likely NDA'd from telling you what it is.

roadandmountain

It's industry wide. Specialized is also becoming notorious for it's ugly black matte bikes, and their choice of rainbow hues ranging from matte black, to black, to grey...

Felt's bikes are all black, with hideous block graphics. It's sad because their geometry is spot on for me.

There's an ongoing thread: "show me your black bikes" with a bunch of posters celebrating all black bikes, with posters chiding anyone with a bike that shows even the slightest trace of color.

Weatherby

They don't paint the frames because the market wants light and cheap; paint is heavy and expensive to apply.

They are still ugly.

ImChris

If I recall, the bike industry was all 'rolling billboards' a few years back. You couldn't find a bike without 10 logos on it or clashes of colors. Now it switched to solid color subtle designs with very few decals. What would be everyone's idea of a perfect looking bike? Is there a medium between subtle and rollin billboard? I'm guilty of an all black bike btw.

..and not all paint is heavy.




Trek has the vapor coat. It adds just under 5 grams to a raw frame. Pretty cool, imo. Although, i'm no racer so a light bike isn't a huge concern to me (other than something to brag about at the local coffee shop after a Sunday morning ride. Ha!)

-Chris

Finny59

I am looking at the Domane 4.3 2014 and 2015. Getting conflicting info from LBS vs Trek website (which may not yet reflect 2015s). Can anybody confirm that 2015 4.3 is 11 speed full 105? And, is black/white with orange trim (vs 2014s Blue)? Also, hearing that 2015 is MSRP $2099, which seems lower than current 2014 MSRP. Clarifications appreciated. Thx

SundayNiagara

Has anyone seen. or ridden the Emonda SL-5?

fstshrk

I own and ride a Domane 4.5. While the magazine reviews have made a big stink about how stiff the front end is, for daily riding and climbing, this is a complete non-issue.
With the 25 tires that came with the bike, running 85 psi front and 100 psi rear even on chip seal results in a perfectly harmonious ride.

Even though I owned a Roubaix SL2, I have not regretted buying the Domane at all. It is a great bike. I wish they made one with built-in braze-ons for mounting a rack properly for commuting. I am now using the Bontrager rack that attaches at the brake bridge and the dropouts for the rear wheel. It works and no issues, but brazeons would be great.

Maybe they can call it the Domane Every-person's Edition. Who says that those of us that commute daily don't want to ride a nice, lightweight, fast bike.

Nebby10

I only mentioned it because it's noticeable, it doesn't really bother me much personally

KantoBoy

Not a fan of Trek but here's Zubeldia's Emonda while I walked around the tour busses @ TdF last week

Dancing Skeleton

I have a 2013 Domane P1, which I love.
The Domane disc bikes look great, but I really think that Trek blew it with only two options.
Who wants a Sora equipped bike?
I'm sure that Sora works fine, but c'mon Trek, nine-speed & exposed cable housings?
We're at 11-speed on most new bikes, 9 is a step backwards.
The 4.0 has Tiagra 10-speed (along with the exposed cables), but at least it's 10-speed.
The 4.3, at only $100 more, has 105 10-speed.
Trek should have offered a 10-speed disc option at ~ $2300.
The Sora 9-speed was a major mistake.

PaulRivers

Yeah, I think it's great when they offer cheaper Sora options in full carbon for commuters or people who just like full carbon in order to lower the price to around $1,600. That's great.

But that's not what they're doing here. The only affordable disc options is Sora, and it's still $2,100. Wth? I mean it's just it's just bizarre - they don't even offer like a $2500 105 option or even a $3k with disc or something like that. The Trp Hyd semi-hydraulic disc brakes they offer are very good disc brakes at least.

But your only options for a disc are the $2,100 cheapo Sora version, or the $7,899 Domane 6.9 disc. It's just...bizarre that they don't offer any in-between models.

WalksOn2Wheels

Kind of an older thread, but since I've recently obsessed over and acquired a 5.9, and currently work at a Trek dealer, I thought I would add some stuff.

Finny59, It's not live on their website, but it's in stock and ready to order from their warehouse. I've seen the picture on the dealer site and the FD has the tell-tale long arm design for the 11 spd.

As far as the Roubaix vs. Domane stuff, I think it comes down to a different approach to reducing vibrations, specifically speaking of which frequency of vibrations you want to try and absorb. The zertz inserts are very good at high frequency road buzz type frequencies. The iso speed decoupler is targeting low frequency vibrations specific to very rough surfaces. It was very much engineered to the abuse of the cobbles. It's very, very good at it and reviewers typically note how the front end feels harsh in comparison. But that is mostly due to the fact that without a true pivot point, you're not going to equal the rear end feel of the Domane to the front end. They do have the asymmetric steerer and swept fork, but that can only do so much. To cut high frequency vibrations, they do use the iso speed bars with the foam pads, but I read elsewhere that if you wrap your bars really tight, you basically kill any advantage the pads would have offered. My approach: carbon bars, with pads with moderately tight tape.

Regarding the seatpost issue: I'm not going to lie, I am not too into the idea of being locked into a proprietary seatpost, or seat cap as Trek likes to call it. However, I have a setup where I carry the bike in the back of my hatchback with a fork mount. It requires removal of the seatpost, and having a nicely marked seattube where I don't even have to think about where to put the saddle height (and without an annoying piece of electrical tape) and a handy included 4mm torque limited hand tool, it actually works out great for me.

We also sell Cannondale at my shop, so I had thought about the Synapse. They went from one annoying seatpost design to a slightly less annoying one. We were happy when we found out they were going to a standard round seatpost, but that was before we got them in the shop and saw it was a 25.4 post that no one else was going to make (outside of BMX stuff) and a "hidden" bolt (because people who are shopping for endurance bikes are REALLY concerned about aerodynamics) that is nearly impossible to get to unless you go to the back of the shop and pull out the torque wrench with the right bit, extension, etc. Not a massive problem as it's usually a set and forget sort of thing, but it's a huge pain for setting people up on test rides and for my admittedly odd situation where I'm frequently removing the seatpost.

On the Sora bike: Man, I don't know. Our price on the non-disc 105 is $2,099, so I can only assume there is some sort of extra expense for the disc version. Maybe the result of a smaller run of frames for a single mold? Heck if I know. I wouldn't have done it. I would have just put the 105 on there and said "Yeah, the disc option is extra." But that's not my job.

And on the subject of matte black bikes: Man, I really, really did not want to get an all black bike. I had the feeling that it would just look immediately dated and so "vanilla" and something that ten years down the line, people would look at and say, "Oh, you must have bought that between about 2000 and 2015." But just like everything else bicycle related, I always want something colorful, go back and forth, never can find one I really, really like and end up with something in all black. Whatevs. It looks amazing. (5.9 DA)