Trek have launched what is claimed to be the world’s lightest production bike in Yorkshire ahead of the Tour de France Grand Départ, with the flagship, £11,000 Émonda SLR 10 said to weigh just 4.65kg in a size 56cm.
The Émonda is Trek’s new climbing bike, sitting alongside the aero Madone and the Domane ‘endurance’ machine in the American firm’s range. The top-of-the-range Émonda SLR frame, which we first spotted at the Criterium du Dauphiné, has a claimed weight of 690g, though significantly heavier (and more affordable) versions are available as part of a 11-bike collection which starts at £1,200.
We’ll concentrate on the headline-grabbing Émonda SLR 10 for now, before running through the rest of the range.
Émonda is a play on the French verb ‘émonder’, which means ‘to prune’ or ‘to trim’, and that’s exactly what Trek have set about doing with their new machine. Émonda is, of course, also an anagram of Madone (as is Domane).
The frame, which has reportedly been in production for 30 months, is made from the same OCLV 700 carbon fibre as the Madone 7-Series but its tube profiles have been optimised in order to save as much weight as possible, without, Trek say, sacrificing the stiffness required to put that lack of weight to good use. The 690g claimed weight of a painted 56cm Émonda frame is said to be lighter than the Cannondale SuperSix Evo (710g) and Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL4 (897g).
The frame itself still comes with a lifetime warranty and retains the oversized BB90 bottom bracket and 1.5″ to 1-1/8″ E2 tapered headtube of the Madone. The frame is also compatible with electronic and mechanical groupsets, comes with an integrated chain catcher and uses Bontrager’s new DuoTrap S sensor, which is now both Bluetooth and ANT+ compatible, so it can communicate, for example, with your smart phone, as well as ANT+ enable computers.
The frame is only half the story as far as the Émonda SLR 10 is concerned. Integration and a (to put it mildly) top-end spec also help Trek achieve that headline weight of 4.65kg.
Integration comes in the Émonda SLR 10’s Bontrager XXX handlebar/stem and the Bontrager Speed Stop brakes. The one-piece handlebar/stem, which has a 129mm drop and 93mm reach, is said to save in the region of 75g of weight (every little helps) over a traditional setup by removing the interface between the handlebar and stem. The stem also has a proprietary mount to accept a Garmin, iPhone or similar device.
The Speed Stop brakes, meanwhile, are direct mount units and so mount directly to the frame via two bolts, thus removing unnecessary mounting components. They’re also said to improve braking performance.
As for the rest of the spec, the Émonda SLR 10 is, aside from those brakes, dressed in a SRAM Red 22 groupset, super-light Tune Skyline wheels wrapped in Vittoria Crono CS tubular tyres, and a Tune Komm-Vor Plus saddle – all of which helps keep the overall weight so astonishingly low.
We expect to see more of the Émonda SLR at the Tour de France under Trek Factory Racing riders, though it will, of course, be in team spec (Shimano Dura-Ace and Bontrager wheels, for example) and brought up to the UCI weight limit of 6.8kg.
As for the rest of the collection, four more models are based around the SLR frame, with the SLR 9 (Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, Bontrager Aeolus 3 wheels, 6.1kg claimed weight) at £7,800 (a women’s WSD version is also available), the SLR 8 (Shimano Dura-Ace mechanical, Bontrager RXL Tubeless Ready wheels, 6.15kg claimed weight) at £5,800 and SLR 6 (Shimano Ultegra mechanical, Bontrager RL Tubeless Ready wheels, claimed weight 6.6kg) at £4,300. The SLR is also available as a frameset for £3,000.
Move down a level to the Émonda SL frame, made from Trek’s OCLV 700 carbon fibre, and the price drops significantly, though the weight rises (claimed weight TBC). There are six bikes in the SL range, from the £1,900 SL5 (Shimano 105, Bontrager Race Tubeless Ready wheels, claimed weight TBC) to the £3,100 SL8 (Shimano Dura-Ace mechanical, Bontrager Race Tubeless Ready wheels, 7.06kg claimed weight), while the SL also comes as a frameset for £1,250.
Finally, the Émonda line opens with the S frame, made from OCLV 300 carbon fibre and with three bikes available: the entry-level S4 (Shimano Tiagra, Bontrager wheels, 8.74kg claimed weight) for £1,200, the women’s-specific S5 WSD (Shimano 105, Bontrager wheels, claimed weight TBC) for £1,500 and the S6 (Shimano Ultegra mechanical, Bontrager wheels, claimed weight 8.38kg) for £1,800.
Website: Trek
