Trek Domane 54 or 56 (pics included)?

ceeK

Hi everyone. Having second thoughts about the size of my new bike and looking for a bit of reassurance. Both the 56 and 54 fit my bike fit measurements, and I ended up going for the 56 but I'm wondering whether it'll limit me in the future. The max saddle to bar drop I could get (with a slammed 17 degree stem) is about 5cm to 6cm. Mainly using the bike for getting fit and sportives (got a 100 mile and 50 mile events planned), so no races, but it's a long term bike that I'm hoping to get fitter with.

My professional bike fit mentioned my inflexibility (I work an office job), and I came out of it with a recommended 3cm saddle to bar drop, fairly short reach, 73cm saddle height and 165mm cranks (amongst other things). Had knee problems in the past from cycling, which still flare up.

Here's what I look like on both bikes:

56: https://ibb.co/0B2c7Lr
54: https://ibb.co/CwQXVXp

The 54 is the one outside. The 56 is on the turbo trainer. The main difference in the frames is the stack height as the reach its only 3mm difference. In the photos the 56 has an 80mm stem, 54 has a 90mm. Bike is a trek domane SL 6 disc. Despite considering a 54, I'm between a 56 and 58 according to Trek's website, which makes me think I'm crazy for looking at the 54 but bike shops vary as to what they suggested. The salesman who took the photo of me riding the 54 said it looked a fraction too small.

Will not being able to drop the bars much limit me in the future? It's a shame that to get to the lower end I'd have to whack a 17 degree stem on, which might look odd? But I'm not sure whether I'd ever want to get to that much drop for an endurance bike... For all intents and purposes the 54 would let me drop it by only another ~16mm, so roughly a max of 7.5cm with 17 degree stem, which makes me think it's not worth worrying about for such marginal gains. Plus the 56 lets me ride a larger frame pack for bikepacking (which I did last year and want to do again).

I'm 179cm (5ft 10.5), 82.5cm (32.5") inseam.

Thanks!

froze

due to the pics being completely different, different backdrop, different clothes, different camera distance, etc I can't really tell! if by chance you can reshoot and get the two exactly, or at least a lot closer to exactly the same as possible we might be able to tell, and wear shorts and short sleeve shirt so we can see the joint bend, and make sure your leg/foot closest to the camera is at the 6 o'clock position.

zeee

One thing I will say is your flexibility/reach will improve as you get fitter and more used to being on the bike. I started cycling last year and on my old relaxed geometry bike I couldn't stay in the drops for more than a couple of minutes. I now have a 'race' bike and I can stay in the drops all day and have lowered the bars. This was down to a combination of getting used to it and stretching several times a week. IMO you could go for the 56 and play with the stem/bar position to make it comfortable. Then in the future you may find you can use a longer stem and lower the bars. At the end of the day it is you that has to ride it so it is what feels right to you.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Going on https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/bike ... c/p/23389/ geometry chart and comparing it to my 58cm https://www.cube.eu/uk/products/road-ra ... hred-2016/

The 56cm Trek is 11mm shorter reach and 19mm lower stack.

I'm ~178cm tall with ~82cm cycling inseam (not trouser inseam, using "book" method), I have a history of lower back issues for the past ~11 years.
Pedal top to saddle top along seat tube line ~90.5cm (with 172.5mm cranks)
Default 110mm stem currently -6 degrees, 35mm spacers (including conical) below and 10mm above stem, will reduce it by 5/10mm now indoor turbo season coming to a close hopefully!

Your 80mm stem on the 56cm frame sounds awfully short and twitchy for road riding, 100-120mm would be far more common. http://yojimg.net/bike/web_tools/stem.php lets you play around with stem designs and see where your bars will end up.

ceeK

Zeee wrote:

IMO you could go for the 56 and play with the stem/bar position to make it comfortable. Then in the future you may find you can use a longer stem and lower the bars. At the end of the day it is you that has to ride it so it is what feels right to you.

Yeh my plan is to get more flexible and change the position as I go. I'm glad to hear of your success. From what I understood of my bike fit, I'm at my most inflexible right now and was recommended some stretches (especially in the hamstrings). I've only got longer and lower bars ahead of me to quote my fitter. However the with the 56 I have to have 25mm of spacers above the stem just to get my current fit, which is eating into my future flexibility potential. I've only got 15mm of spacers left to remove before changing the stem angle. The 54 by comparison has more to work with (16mm less stack), but would need a 10mm longer stem to get the fit right.

NitrousOxide wrote:

Your 80mm stem on the 56cm frame sounds awfully short and twitchy for road riding, 100-120mm would be far more common. http://yojimg.net/bike/web_tools/stem.php lets you play around with stem designs and see where your bars will end up.

Yeh I know my bike fit recommended a 486mm saddle tip to bar measurement due to my inflexibility, and the Domane has one of the shortest reaches already. I do have the 100mm stem that came with the bike for when I get more flexible. Due to the extra spacers I need on the 54, a 90mm stem works for me on that bike.

I've used that tool (and several others) before to work out the max drop I could ever get on the 56 (~6cm). They're really helpful.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

So do you have either frame size bike at home now? Going on photos, I presume you have the 56cm at home.

If so, have you tried maximising the number of spacers under the stem, which will only require 5mm spacer above stem if your fork steerer is carbon?
Flipped the stem so it has a positive angle towards sky?

For road riding, I would much rather have a 100mm+ stem with +ve angle and more spacers under the stem, than an 80mm with -ve angle and less spacers. As your flexibility improves, play with the setup, I started with stem as high as it would go on my Cube.

The other thing to maybe look at is the reach of the bars themselves, they do vary a bit between brands/models, IIRC I've seen some with as low as ~77mm reach while internet window shopping in recent months.

ceeK

NitrousOxide wrote:

So do you have either frame size bike at home now? Going on photos, I presume you have the 56cm at home.

If so, have you tried maximising the number of spacers under the stem, which will only require 5mm spacer above stem if your fork steerer is carbon?
Flipped the stem so it has a positive angle towards sky?

Yeh I have the 56 right now. I haven't tried maxing out the spacers, as if I did I would be way over my bike fit measurements. I could move 20mm of spacers below the stem with my current setup (3cm bar drop), which would still leave a 5mm spacer above the stem, but then go to ~1cm bar drop.

This is my setup for 3cm bar drop on a 56: https://imgur.com/a/Qpoims4

To be honest I'm hoping to move back to a 100mm pretty soon. I'm taking up Yoga and doing stretches. My last bike had a 394mm reach frame and 90mm stem, which had about 525mm saddle to bar reach. It wasn't perfect, but means adding 20mm to my current stem is well within my limits.

sloppyschleckonds

ceeK wrote:

Hi everyone. Having second thoughts about the size of my new bike and looking for a bit of reassurance. Both the 56 and 54 fit my bike fit measurements, and I ended up going for the 56 but I'm wondering whether it'll limit me in the future.

Will not being able to drop the bars much limit me in the future?

No

ceeK

Also here is a video of me riding the 54: https://imgur.com/a/M3Hjuqs

And this is the 56 with the bars in their lowest position. Ignore the lack of spacers, imagine this with a 17 degree stem and 1cm headset bearing cap which results in a similar ~6cm drop). Saddle is maybe few mm higher than I'd like: https://imgur.com/a/jKs6fIj

cougie

I agree the 54 looks too small for you. I'd be going for the 56 if it were me.

barongreenback

If you're worried about 'only' having a 5-6cm drop from saddle to bar, then the Domane may be the wrong geometry in the first place as it's one of the most upright riding Endurance bikes (very mild stack to reach ratio). In fact that's one of the reasons I chose it.

ceeK

barongreenback wrote:

If you're worried about 'only' having a 5-6cm drop from saddle to bar, then the Domane may be the wrong geometry in the first place as it's one of the most upright riding Endurance bikes (very mild stack to reach ratio). In fact that's one of the reasons I chose it.

Yeh I chose it for the same reason really. I've never had a big drop and my bike fit actually reduced my drop from 4.5cm to 3cm. However, I'd like this to be my "one bike" I have for years, so maybe I'm putting too much importance on how it'll perform 2 years down the line. The 56 will most likely perform admirably, especially once I increase the stem length.

barongreenback

ceeK wrote:

barongreenback wrote:

If you're worried about 'only' having a 5-6cm drop from saddle to bar, then the Domane may be the wrong geometry in the first place as it's one of the most upright riding Endurance bikes (very mild stack to reach ratio). In fact that's one of the reasons I chose it.

Yeh I chose it for the same reason really. I've never had a big drop and my bike fit actually reduced my drop from 4.5cm to 3cm. However, I'd like this to be my "one bike" I have for years, so maybe I'm putting too much importance on how it'll perform 2 years down the line. The 56 will most likely perform admirably, especially once I increase the stem length.

It’s a great bike and I can hold over 20mph average for an hour on a reasonably flat course even despite my measly 1cm saddle to bar drop. Fantastic for crappy UK roads and I’ve just upgraded to deeper carbon wheels. Next year - electronic gears

manoirdelourde

barongreenback wrote:

If you're worried about 'only' having a 5-6cm drop from saddle to bar, then the Domane may be the wrong geometry in the first place as it's one of the most upright riding Endurance bikes (very mild stack to reach ratio). In fact that's one of the reasons I chose it.

This ^^

I think you should stop worrying about two years down the line and just enjoy riding the bike. In two years you’ll want a new bike anyway . . .

BTW the 54 deffo looks too small for you.

iso2000

I'm 5'8" and the 54 Domane fits me fine so I would think you would need at least a 56. As others have said the Domane is an endurance bike so is not meant to have a low front end. Leave that stuff for the pros and wannabes.

Out of interest did you try an SLR model? I'm thinking of updating my bike.

barongreenback

Iso2000 wrote:

I'm 5'8" and the 54 Domane fits me fine so I would think you would need at least a 56. As others have said the Domane is an endurance bike so is not meant to have a low front end. Leave that stuff for the pros and wannabes.

Out of interest did you try an SLR model? I'm thinking of updating my bike.

I have the SLR 6 disc. I honestly can’t see that much difference at the front end compared to my Synapse aluminium winter bike. I got it for the same price as the SL as the dealer had none in stock.