Trek 2018 Road Bike Guide
Trek 2018 Road Bike Guide
We explain the Trek 2018 Road Bike Guide range. Helping you understand this year's range. Trek is known for their top-end road bikes. With past riders including Lance Armstrong, Fabian Cancellara and Alberto Contador. Trek road bikes have been ridden to victory in most of the world’s big races.
Trek make a huge range of road bikes for all types of riders. For 2018 Trek have over 50 different models of road bike available ranging in price from £625 to £9,500. If you're new to road bikes or to the Trek range it can be hard to know where to start. The first thing to understand is the different families of bikes within the Trek range. These include the Madone, Domane, Emonda, Boone, Crockett and Speed Concept. Our 018 Trek Road Bike Guide covers it all.
Women Specific Road Bikes
You may notice there aren't many Women Specific models in our Trek 2018 Road Bike Guide. In previous years Trek has done specific ranges of road bikes for women such as the Lexa and the Slique. They have dropped this approach for 2018 and instead have incorporated women’s specific bikes into their main ranges. So you can now get a Madone, Émonda or Domane tailored to female riders. This gives female riders a much better choice of bikes. It also means they can ride the same bikes, with the same technology, as men. It’s nice to see that Trek has chosen neutral colours on their 2018 women’s road bikes with hardly any pink.
Trek Madone
The Madone is Trek’s flagship race bike. It is the one their pro riders will use on most races and falls firmly into the aero superbike category. As you would expect from a modern top-end road bike. The Madone comes with aero shaped tubing, designed to cut through the air more efficiently than traditional round tubes and deep-section aero wheels. It also has extra touches such as integrated brakes and almost completely hidden cabling to further reduce drag. One of the things that really makes the Madone unique is the use of Trek’s IsoSpeed decoupler system. This allows the back of the bike to soak up bumps while maintaining stiffness and acceleration.
Who is a Madone good for? –designed for pro racers. If you race yourself, or simply want the fastest road bike possible, then the Madone is the bike for you.
Trek Emonda
Where the Madone is all about aerodynamics the Trek Émonda is all about weight. The Émonda is designed to be the lightest road bike possible. The pros turn to the Emonda for mountain stages in the Tour de France for its climbing and descending abilities. Although at home in the hills the Émonda will work equally well on tight crit race circuits or on your local club run.
Trek make two versions of the Émonda. The main range is built around a carbon frame. While the Émonda ALR is built around a lightweight aluminium frame. Both versions of the Trek Émonda are super-fast race-ready bikes for those who light and responsive bike.
If you want a carbon frame Émonda there are three options to choose from. The Émonda S is the cheapest model and uses a 300 series carbon frame. The Émonda SL comes next and uses a 500 series carbon frame. At the top of the range is the Émonda SLR using the 700 series carbon frames. The differences between the frames are the quality of the carbon used and the weight they come in at as a result
Who is an Émonda good for? – Anyone who wants a super light and super responsive road bike, especially if your riding revolved around hills.
Trek Domane
The Trek Domane was originally developed for classic races like Paris-Roubaix and Strada Bianchi. Where a bike needs to be able to handle cobbles, mud and gravel roads. The Domane uses Trek’s IsoSpeed technology which allows the seat tube and head tube to ‘decouple’ when you hit a bump. The ‘decoupling’ allows parts of the bike to move independently from each other absorbing and smoothing out shocks. So you can hit cobbles or gravel at higher speeds. Stay in the saddle more easily and ride long distances without getting fatigued. As the Domane was designed to be a race-winning bike it does all of this while allowing the bike to remain stiff and responsive. So you can still sprint up hills on it.
Although developed and tested on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. The Domane’s ability to soak up bumps makes it perfect for often rough British roads. Trek’s tagline for the Domane is "Go Anywhere". So if you do need to nip down a gravel track or path the Domane can handle it with ease. It will still let you keep up on group rides and club runs. Due to its fatigue-reducing capabilities, the Domane is also a popular choice for big 100+ mile rides.
The Domane is available in a huge range of options. Starting with the aluminium framed Domane AL and Domane ALR models and working up to the 600 series carbon-framed Domane SLR used by the pros. Disc brake versions of the Domane are available throughout the range.
Who is the Domane good for? – If you regularly ride on rough and potholed country lanes. Get tempted by the occasional canal towpath or old railway line. Or you simply want a super comfortable ride, then the Domane is for you.
Trek Crokett and Trek Boone
The Crockett and Boone are both cyclocross bikes but can equally be used as gravel, adventure or fast commuting bikes. Due to their ability to handle the rough stuff. The Crockett and Boone are popular as winter bikes and for those who want to explore off the beaten track.
The Crockett has an aluminium frame. The Boone has a carbon frame and is the more race orientated of the two.
Who are the Crockett and Boone good for? – Both models are super capable cyclocross bikes with the Boone being used by pro cross teams. However, both bikes also make great commuting and adventure platforms. Giving you more ability to mix paths and tracks into your rides.
Trek Speed Concept
Rounding out the Trek 2018 Road Bike Guide is the Speed Concept. The Speed Concept is an out and out aero machine. Designed for time trailing and triathlon the Speed Concept is given minimal drag and cuts through the air as efficiently as possible. So if your interests revolve around getting your head down and going as fast as possible in your next race this is the bike you need.
Who is the Speed Concept good for? – time trialists and triathletes who want absolute aero performance and minimal drag.
