tomget

According to the TREK page the Emonda SL6 is available:

"Matte Trek Black/Gloss Trek Black
Viper Red/Trek Black"

A little confusing for me..I think I understand the "Viper Red/Trek Black" to be the gloss black frame with the Red Gloss trek lettering, but what is the other of the two colors..

What is Matte Trek Black/Gloss Trek Black? Does that mean the bike frame is matte black and the Trek lettering is Gloss Black? I say this because I've only seen the black matte colored Trek Emonda SL6 on the road.

I've never seen a Gloss Black frame with matte black TRek lettering(that I noticed), and is that because its not offered?

GlennR

It took 2 seconds on Google images to find these.
https://www.google.com/search?q=emon...h=926#imgdii=_

Matte Trek Black/Gloss Trek Black


Viper Red/Trek Black

jrossbeck

As answered by the pictures above, it is a matte black frame paint, with gloss lettering. As an aside, I have a 2014 Madone 2.1 with gloss black and Trek tried to do a matte striping pattern on the top tube, which is now wearing off due to sweat and minor knee rub. Once it's all gone, it probably won't bother me, but as it currently stands halfway gone it looks like garbage. Not very happy about that. Hopefully whatever method they use to place the gloss on the matte frame works better.

tomget

Thanks for the help.

Tom

DonBjr

I have the red one, but the bike shop put black tape and a black seat on it for me, which I preferred over the white.

gsa103

Wow, I hate to say it but those are two ugly bikes. The matte winds up looking like a generic ebay carbon frame, and the red is just too much red. I guess the red version might look better in person since the top tube accents are covered by glare in the photo above. Either that or this is Trek's method of pushing Project One by putting all the decent paint designs into the P1 frames.

softreset

We stock both colors at our shop. The red SL 6 definitely grows on you, if you like Red bikes. It's a very popular seller for us.

txags92

You can also get a gloss black SL frame with white lettering and have it built up with an ultegra build to get an SL6 as well for about the same price as a pre-built SL6. It will look identical to the gloss black/white lettered SL8. That is what I am having done and should receive it in early February. I am upgrading the wheels and handlebar as well, but otherwise it will be an SL6, without the ugly paint job.

txags92

I saw a picture somewhere of one that somebody had built up with a black saddle and black bar tape, and it looked much better than the one shown above. If I liked red bikes better, I might have been willing to try that.

shelbyfv

The red looks really nice viewed in person. IMO.

MacAttack1115

That's exactly what I purchased. They built the SL6 with the SL8 frame. I requested the black bar tape and black saddle as I didn't care too much for how it looked with white.

GlennR

The SL6 and SL8 are the same frame.

rpenmanparker 

Trek never has had the first idea about decorating their bikes. It is like kindergardners with finger paints. Pathetic. Back in the day their ground breaking Trek 2000 was first offered in a cream color that matched absolutely no tape, saddle or cable outer colors. When the frame had to be replaced under warranty, they sent me one in robin's egg blue with pink lettering. The didn't know what they were doing then, and they still don't. Great bikes though.

GlennR

Trek Concept One

rpenmanparker 

What are you saying, their best paint job is no paint job? Thst is not exactly a compliment.

txags92

Except for the paint scheme...

GlennR

True, you can also go Project one and pick from a number of different paint schemes.

txags92

Not with the SL frame. You can only do project one with the S or SLR frameset.

GlennR

Weird... i wonder why.

I went P1 on my SLR build because I wanted Sram Red and they don't offer it on the SLR8, but they do on the SL8.

txags92

Money. They want people who really care about the paint scheme to have to upgrade the frame to get that choice.

GlennR

Paint is only one part of the Project One.... gruppo, wheels, saddle are the real reasons.

But why offer it on the "S" if you want to push people to upgrade... they might downgrade.

txags92

I agree with you. Not really sure why they did it, unless they only have a limited availability of the SL frames and didn't want to have to deal with custom builds and custom painting them. The inventory and backorder issues they are having with the SL5/SL6 models would suggest that might be the case...

Dunbar

Don't they do the same thing with Domane? Project 1 is available on 4 and 6 series but not on the 5.

txags92

Yep, and after thinking about it some more, I think they do it because it is a win-win situation for them. They know that the 5 series Domane/SL Emonda is a popular price range. So they put ok, but not particularly flashy paint schemes on the bikes. If people decide to do a P1 bike for the Emonda or the Domane, either they are going to spend more for a bike that costs Trek less to make if they go with the 4/S or jump up to a higher priced bike in the SLR/6 series. Either way, Trek makes more money than if they had just sold a stock 5 series Domane or SL Emonda.

tomget

I picked up the new bike today..I went back and forth about the matte black..but the more I look at it the more I think its gonna be just fine..