Trek Domane 5.9 Ultegra Di2

I just got my first real road bike, after a couple of years with a 14kg hybrid and fat knobbly tyres, struggling up hills after my friends.



I started road cycling to help with leg pains and stiffness after a hernia op and it really helped. So this winter I started looking for something much lighter but not too aggressive, as I was used to the comfy seat and upright riding position but fed up with the weight. Since I was only road riding a proper road bike made sense but having briefly tried a Trek Madone 5.2 I knew that a too aggressive riding position would likely cause me problems.

The guy at my LBS suggested that the new Damone might be ideal for me, as the geometry was more endurance oriented and the isoflex gave a more comfortable ride, and we started looking at the 4.3 but to be honest, it didn't seem as light as I would have hoped for the money. A step up to the 5.2 and a proper road test followed and this was more like it. However, I was uncertain about the bright red and white scheme and once I heard about the electronic gearset on the 5.9 I knew I had to go for that one. I have always been a gadget freak! It also came with lighter wheels and saddle, which helped to justify the difference in price.

I picked it up a few weeks ago and the difference in weight is quite shocking, the hills are much less daunting now.

The bike was 7.4 Kg without pedals. I already had some SPD shoes that I had only just got used to (after riding poorly adjusted and agrevating my hernia repair) so I put some PD-A600 SPD pedals on, which are great and lighter than the alloy Ultegra SPD-SL pedals. Being able to walk in the SPD shoes is helpful and unclipping in any direction makes it less likely I'll fall.

So 290g for the pedals, a carbon bottle cage and a duotrap speed\cadence senor beautifully integrated into the frame made it 7.76 Kg in all.



Even with an underseat bag and pump it's still comfortably less than 8Kg, which is what I had been aiming for.

The Di2 is very nice, and I am slowly getting used to the changes and only occasionally going the wrong way up/down the gears. I'd love to get hold of the PC interface and change the rear to work the same way as the front, and also setup a multi-shift for 3 gears at a time to make it easy to compensate on the rear gears when changing the front gear. Unfortunately the LBS doesn't have the interface and I'm not sure it's worth £160 to me so I'm just getting used to the default settings at the moment. It's not that hard to tap the right button three times at the same time as tapping the left button once.

The Isoflex does seem to work very well, and the feedback through the front gives quite a contrast to how much the rear is cushioned. It makes the ride seem very smooth while the front still communicates how the road surface really is. Coupled with the 25C tyres the ride is defintely road bike not hybrid, but some of the edge is taken off it.

The biggest change is the way the bike shoots forward when I push hard. Being clipped into the pedals and the light weight seems to give much more forward momentum for the pedalling effort and it's really quite addictive.

I'm training up for a 54 mile charity ride in May and so far have got up to 20 miles but need to manage at least twice as long in the saddle before I can be sure to undertake the probably 4.5 hour ride.

We're having to pick and choose the days to go out (floods, snow, rain, cold) and suffering aches and pains as I get used to the riding position, mostly from my arms and chest from the weight on my arms. The regular exercise and some careful dieting has seen me lose a stone in a few months so another 6 Kg saved and it's hardly surprising that we are getting up the hills about 3 mph faster.

Cheers,

Geoff