Emonda SL
I am currently hiring a 2022 SL6 Ultegra with Bontrager carbon wheels. It was 5k back in 2022… obvs now old… BUT I am staggered by how average and dull it is. I would say it is a worse bike than my old Dolan Preffisio, except for the brakes. It is also heavy as a house, must be well over 8kg, for a bike built on a climbing frame… 😬
So here is my advice… steer clear of these Emondas.
It’s hard to care, when the roads are so amazing, but I would be well pissed off if I had spent that kind of money to buy one.
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I think I said this on a thread years ago. They are like All Bran without milk.
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I briefly had an Emonda SLR 6 a couple of years ago. That was seriously light. 7.2kg rings a bell. I recall being unimpressed with the SL equivalents at the time, due to their weight.
It was a round 1 minute per 10k faster than my 2011 Wilier Izoard over my benchmark "hilly hundred" training ride so whether it was worth the £8k I paid for it is another matter. The Cycling Gods clearly didn't think so, as they arranged a crash for me (going uphill too) in which the bike was written off!
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I wouldn’t consider 7.2 kg as seriously light.
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That was with pedals, bottle cages and saddle bag. And it is billed primarily as an aero bike (which for reasons I don't fully understand, usually results in a relatively heavy frame) that is light enough to be handy for climbing. But as it's now in "the great broken bike bin in the sky" it scarcely matters!
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7.2kg isn't too bad. In the good old days of rim brakes, to get something under 7kg you would still have had to pay a fair chunk of money and more than likely have something built to order with lighter parts.
I had Trek bikes some years ago and they were okay, I can't say they made a lasting impression. Of all the major brands ( I guess I would have owned bikes from the most well known 6 or 7), I would say Scott, Cannondale and Specialized tend to feel the 'liveliest', but I appreciate that is entirely subjective opinion.
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FWIW, when the insurance money landed, I went for a Pearson, on the recommendation of a friend, as the "big brand" experience wasn't didn't really justify the price tag. That's slightly heavier (and perhaps not quite as lively, though that may be the rider) and doesn't have a powermeter (no bad thing, as I don't ride to power on the road, much as I obsess over power when indoors) and has a much better name ("Hammerandtongs", in theory to reflect the riding style of a typical owner.) And there was enough dosh left over to pay for a two week holiday in the Alps to ride it!
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I have a Focus Izalco max rim brake bike with Dura ace, 50mm carbon rims that comes in under 7 kg with pedals and bottle cages. It was under 4 grand 6 years ago.
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It’s not that it is a bad bike, it does the job… it just does not appear to me to be an upgrade to anything other than the cheapest sub 1k bikes out there. When I first got my 2k Bianchi Sprint rim brake, it had some seriously crap components on it and probably weighed 300g more than this SL6, but less than half the price.
The Bontrager Aeolus 35 mm carbon rims are seriously mediocre, slow freehub engagement and overall probably heavy as a house, judging by the sturdy looking hubs. I guess spending a grand in China would probably make it into a reasonably light and responsive bike, but I still think the geometry is very slack… kind of a slow endurance bike, probably OK to do the Majorca 312 in a gazillion hours…
Maybe some decent tyres instead of the Grand Prix would help too… but I can’t ignore it was 5 grand… so probably 6 grand now for the same
left the forum March 20230 -
Nice! Though worth noting that the bike buying market in 2018 was a whole different universe to that which prevailed in 2022. There wasn't a huge amount of choice at my point in the size range (circa 6' tall rider). Thankfully things are returning to something approaching "normal".
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… however, this morning I caught up a Scottish guy on Puig Major, same rental bike and he loves it… horses for courses… maybe not a climber… climbers don’t do ear pods, right? 😅🙈
left the forum March 20230 -
and what’s the thing with the 6mm Allen key to remove the wheel? We have gone back to 1921 before the invention of the quick release, have we? Surely the quarter of a watt aero efficiency is not worth having to remember to carry an Allen key all the time.
Interestingly, I found they did not include it in the mini tool set they gave me, so everything else was pretty much useless in case of a puncture…. 🙄
left the forum March 20230 -
I assume you mean thru-axle on the front fork? All DB bikes come like this as far as I know. I have always assumed it is to cope with the braking forces and keep the fork as stiff as possible. As to why they don't fit a lever/handle on them as per rear axles, I am not entirely sure.
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thru axle is fine, but the allen key thing is new to me. The first thru axles used to have a handle. This one has 6 mm allen key front and rear
left the forum March 20230 -
Sorry, I meant all front forks seem to come with an allen key requirement for the TA now (many still seem to have the handle on the rear axle). I am assuming there is an engineering argument for this, which I guess may well be to do with torque tightening requirements. As I said though, not sure why this would be more applicable to a front axle and not a rear axle, as seems to be prevalent.
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I suspect it’s just down to aerodynamics… it is ridiculous though
left the forum March 20231 -
Rental bike security measure?
I know some pro teams experimented with electric drills and Allen keyed through axles, but mine (not a trek) has QR type through axles.
Fwiw I don't see them being much of an improvement. I have a disc cross bike with normal QR skewers and disc brakes. The wheels don't move in the dropouts and the brakes don't rub and more or less than the bike with a through axle.
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I agree with FA, my bike has QR front and back and I don't have a problem with movement. Admittedly I didn't use the Novatec external cam QRs and use Shimano ones. Using an Allen key and not including it in the tool kit is ridiculous.
Probably aerodynamics and weightweenyism combined.
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Most new disc brake bikes on sale these days have thru axles and most take an Allen key rather than a handle - it is not a Trek thing. I have two road bikes with thru axles and one of them came with a "switch lever" handle. You leave in on the rear and it stays in place with a magnet but it looked dorky and I thought I was going to lose it first time I went on a bumpy road so quickly removed.
I never go out without a multi tool so a non issue for me - it's just part of my emergency kit. Plus if you're on tubeless 9 times out of 10 you can fix a puncture without taking the wheel off. I also have a tubeless repair kit in my bar ends, which I couldn't get at without a multi tool.
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it seems to me a step back…
left the forum March 20230
